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LIBRARY 

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Z\yc  TUniverslt^  of  Cbtcago 

FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D.  ROCKEFELLER 


The  ERUCTAVIT,  an  Old  French 

Poem:  the  Author's  Environment, 

his  Argument  and  Materials 


A  DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED  TO  THE  FACULTY   OF  THE  GRADUATE  SCHOOL  OF  ARTS 

AND  LITERATURE,  IN  CANDIDACY  FOR  THE  DEGREE 

OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 

(DEPARTMENT  OF  ROMANCE  LANGUAGES  AND  LITERATURES) 


BY 

GEORGE  FITCH  McKIBBEN 


BALTIMORE 

5.  5H.  ffurst  Companfi 

1907 


Ube  xaniversiti?  ot  CbicaQo 

FOUNDED  BY  JOHN  D.  BOCKEFELLEK 


The  ERUCIAVIT,  an  Old  French 

Poem:  the  Author's  Environment, 

his  Argument  and  Materials 


A  DISSERTATION 

submitted  to  the  faculty  of  the  graduate  school  of  arts 

and  literature,  in  candidacy  for  the  degree 

of  doctor  of  philosophy 

(department  of  romance  languages  and  literatures) 


GEORGE  FITCH   McKIBBEN 


13ALTIM0RE 

3.  M.  jfurst  Company 

1907 


Digitized  by  the  InterneJ  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/eructavitoldfrenOOmckirich 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,  AN   OLD   FRENCH   POEM: 

The  Author's  Environment,  his  Argument 
AND  Materials. 


This  paraphrase  in  verse  of  Psalm  xliv  of  the  Vulgate 
(^Eructavit  cor  meum  verbum  bonuin)  must  have  enjoyed  no  small 
popularity  during  three  centuries,  and  in  widely  separated  parts  of 
the  then  French  speaking  world.  This  is  attested  by  the  fourteen 
copies  ^  that  survive.  Of  these,  two  contain  only  about  a  quarter 
of  the  poem ;  two,  about  one-half;  while  no  less  than  ten  are  quite 
complete  or  nearly  so. 

In  this  study  of  the  poem,  after  an  outline  of  the  investigations 
of  well  known  scholars,  are  presented  my  conclusions  upon  its 
contents  and  plan,  the  author's  environment  and  character,  his 
materials. 

Conspicuous  in  the  poem,  and  no  doubt  explaining  much  of  its 
popularity,  ai-e  the  passages  at  the  beginning  and  end  in  which  the 
poet  addresses  his  patroness.  A  third  address,  containing  only  four 
lines  and  serving  merely  as  a  transition  passage  without  identifying 

^  One  of  the  fragments, — Paris,  B.  N.  902  (ms.  L), — and  eight  of  the  complete 
copies  of  the Eructavit, — Paris,  Ste.  Genevieve,  Lf.  13,  (ms.  C)  ;  B.  N.  2094  (MS.  A); 
1747  (MS.  N);  24429  (ms.  G);  Arsenal,  3518,  (ms.  H);  Madrid,  B.  N.  E.  150 
(Mij.  B) ;  Vatican,  1682  (ms.  F);  British  Museum,  add.  15606  (ms.  E), — were  copied 
by  me  between  December  and  August,  1891 -'92.  The  other  copies,  excepting  that 
of  Vienna,  were  at  the  same  time  rather  hastily  examined  and  compared.  One  of 
my  copies,  that  made  in  the  British  Museum,  was  published  in  1893,  appearing  with 
a  brief  introduction  in  the  Scientific  Bulletin  of  Denison  University,  Granville,  Ohio. 
I  have  recently  secured  copies  of  the  other  mss.  :  Paris,  B.  N.  1536  (ms.  K);  20046 
(MS.  M);  25532  (ms.  I);  Arsenal,  3516  (ms.  J)  and  Vienna,  Bibl.  Palat.,  3430 
(MS.  D). 

The  restored  text  of  the  Ei-uctamt  will  be  published  by  Professor  T.  A.  Jenkins, 
of  the  University  of  Chicago.  As  basis  of  the  outline  of  the  poem,  or  Part  II  of 
this  study,  I  have  used  my  copy  of  tlie  ms.  in  the  British  Museum,  published 
in  1893,  as  stated  above, 

'      1 


A  nni^ar^i 


THE  EBUGTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 


phrases,  occurs  ia  the  latter  part  of  the  poem.     These  addresses  ^ 
are  as  follows : — 


LI.  1-14. 


Une  chan9on  que  David  fist, 
Que  nostre  sire  an  cuer  li  mist, 
Dirai  ma  dame  de  Champaigne, 
Celi  cui  Damedes  anseigne 
Et  espire  de  toz  ses  biens, 
Si  qu'en  li  ne  faut  nule  riens  ; 
An9ois  i  a,  qui  dire  Fose, 


•I"  po  trop  d'une  sole  chose  : 
Tant  i  mist  cil  qui  la  cria 
Largesce  que  trop  an  i  a  ; 
Largesce  et  li  hauz  despens 
Metent  cusan9on  et  espans 
Mainte  foiz  an  jantil  corage. 
Deus  doint  que  n'i  aiens  damage  ! 


LI.  1749-1752. 

Cist  vers  apres  conte  la  joie,  Cui  Damedes  mantaigne  et  gart 

S'est  bien  droiz  que  ma  dame  I'oie,    Si  qu'ele  an  ait  antiere  part. 

LI.  2079-2100. 


La  jantil  suer  le  roi  de  France, 
Recordez  i  vostre  creance. 
Pansez,  dame,  de  bien  amer, 
De  servir  et  de  reclamer 
Celui  qui  la  foi  nos  espire, 
Ou  vostre  jantis  cuers  se  mire. 
Mout  I'avez  fin  et  aguisie  ; 
Ne  sai  ou  vos  avez  puisie  ; 
Mes  d'une  chose  vos  faz  sage. 
Que  mout  avez  grant  avantage  : — 
Qu'un  mot  a  an  sainte  escriture 


Qui  de  grant  bien  nos  asseiire  : 
Qui  Deu  aime  et  de  lui  anquiert 
Seiirs  soit  il  que  miez  Fan  iert. 
Mout  met  son  cuer  a  bone  escole 
Qui  volantiers  ot  sa  parole. 
E  vos,  dame,  estes  toz  jorz  preste 
De  I'oir  et  d'estre  an  anqueste  ; 
Li  bons  maistre  don  vos  avez 
Retenu  quant  que  vos  savez. 
Si  com  il  est  verais  amis, 
Croisse  le  bien  qu'il  i  a  mis  ! 


'These  addresses,  in  which  something  of  the  poet's  purpose  appears,  altho  easily 
omitted,  belonged  to  the  original  poem  ;  their  omission,  when  not  the  result  of  a 
mutilation  of  the  MS.,  may  be  attributed  to  the  scribe's  desire  to  adapt  the  poem  to 
some  more  general  use. 

The  various  copies  treat  them  as  follows  :  L  and  M,  being  fragments,  have  only  the 
first  address  ;  K  and  H,  only  the  second  ;  I,  altho  nearly  complete,  omits  all  three 
addresses  ;  J,  a  fragment  and  mutilated,  has  only  three  lines  of  the  first ;  D,  F,  G, 
A,  N,  and  E  contain  all  three  ;  B  and  C  contain  the  first  and  second,  but  the  latter, 
evidently  by  an  error,  has  lost  the  identifying  phrase  of  line  3,  ma  dame  de 
Champaigne. 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FEENCH  POEM.  3 

The  only  expressions  that  serve  here  to  identify  the  patroness  are 
ma  dame  de  Champaigne,  1.  3,  and  la  jantil  suer  le  roi  de  France, 
1.  2108.  These,  taken  together,  can  refer  only  to  Marie,  daughter 
of  King  Louis  VII  and  Queen  Eleanor.  She  became  countess  of 
Champagne  in  1164,  upon  her  marriage  with  Henri  I,- the  Liberal, 
after  a  betrothal  beginning  in  early  childhood.  On  the  death  of  her 
father  and  the  accession  of  her  half-brother,  Philip  Augustus,  in 
1181,  she  could  be  spoken  of  as  "sister  of  the  King  of  France." 
In  the  same  year  she  became  a  widow,  and  her  bereavement,  it  is 
thought,  offered  to  the  devout  poet  his  opportunity. 

After  being  forgotten  for  three  centuries,  the  Erudavit  began 
about  two  generations  ago  to  attract  some  attention  from  students 
of  the  life,  thought  and  speech  of  medieval  France.  Certain  well 
known  investigators  have  made  some  expression  in  print  concerning 
it,  as  one  of  the  many  inedita  worthy  of  study.^ 

Prosper  Tarb6  deserves  the  credit  of  pointing  out  Sens  as  the 
author's  city,  and  the  Benedictine  abbey,  St.  Pierre-le-Vif,  as  his 
home.  This  appears  from  the  following  passage,  11.  769-786, 
where  the  local  saints  of  Sens  are  mentioned  by  name : — 

Li  bons  archiers  qui  si  Icing  lance     Qui  s'aresturent  droit  a  Sanz. 
Retraist  -ii*  saietes  an  France,  La  estoit  lors  toz  li  bofois 

Bien  legieres  et  bien  tranchauz,  Et  li  chi^s  de  Sarazinois. 

^Paulin  Paris,  Les  mantiscrits  frangois  de  la  hibllotk^que  du  roi,  vii,  199,  208; 
Prosper  Tarbe,  Poeles  de  Champagne  anierieurs  au  siHcle  de  Francois  I,  37,  38  ;  Hol- 
land, Chrestkn  von  Troyes,  247  ;  D'  Arbois  de  Jubainville,  Histoire  des  dues  et  des 
comtes  de  Champagne,  iv,  642  ;  P.  Meyer,  Romania,  vi,  9,  and  Bulletin  de  la  Societe 
des  anciens  textts  fran^ais,  1878,  50 ;  G.  Paris,  Romania,  xii,  523,  and  Histoire  de  la 
litterature  fran^aise  au  moyen  dge,  232  ;  J.  Bonnard,  Les  traductions  de  la  Bible  en  vers 
frangais  au  moyen  dge,  139  ;  Grober,  Grundriss  der  romanischen  Philologie,  II,  689  ; 
Suchier  and  Bircli-Hirschfeld,  Geschichte  der  franzosischen  Litteratur,  150.  Reference, 
it  may  be  added,  is  made  to  some  particular  copy  of  the  Eructavit,  for  philological 
rather  than  literary  purposes,  by  W.  Foerster  in  the  large  edition  of  Cliges ;  by  E. 
Goerlich  in  Ber  burgundische  Dicdekt,  and  by  A.  Thomas,  Romania,  xxx,  339. 
Opinions  concerning  the  identity  of  the  dame  de  Champaigne  varied  even  after  1865, 
when  the  fourth  volume  of  D' Arbois  de  Jubainville's  work,  mentioned  above, 
appeared.  The  statement  of  P.  Meyer,  Romania,  vi,  9,  foot-note,  sets  the  matter  at 
rest.  To  G.  Paris  is  due  the  assignment  of  the  year  1181  as  the  earliest  probable 
date  of  the  poem. 


4  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

Li  uns  fu  sainz  Saviniens,  Par  ces  "ii-  fu  France  conquise  : 

Li  autre  sainz  Potanciens.  A  Sanz  fu  la  premiere  eglise 

Selonc  lor  nons  la  vertu  orent  :  Qui  a  non  Sainz  Peres  li  Vis  ; 

Qu'anbedui  sorent  mout  et  porent.  Qu'ancor  n'estoit  il  pas  ocis 

Des  deciples  Damede  furent  ;  Quant  eele  eglise  fu  fondee 

Avee  lui  mangierent  et  burent.  Qui  de  son  non  est  honor^e. 

I.   The  Author's  Environment  and  Character. 

Such  a  passage  as  that  quoted  above  is  usually  thought  to 
determine  the  writer's  home.  It  may  be  so  taken  here.  Our 
poet's  general  environment  then  was  urbs  antiqua  Senonum,  the 
Canterbury  of  France.  The  abbey  of  St.  Pierre-le-Vif  was  his 
more  particular  environment.  He  was  a  Benedictine  monk.  The 
reference  to  the  monastery  seems  all  the  more  decisive  for  the  reason 
that  the  poet  says  nothing  of  the  many  other  religious  foundations 
in  Sens,  a  city  which  at  the  time  was  probably  unsurpassed  in 
France  as  an  ecclesiastical  centre,  being  popularly  called  ''  little 
Rome."  ^  For  instance,  he  does  not  mention  the  depository  of  St. 
Loup's  relics,  the  abbey  of  St.  Columba.  But  he  chooses  to  give  the 
names  of  the  less  conspicuous  St.  Pierre-le-Vif  and  its  traditional 
founders,  SS.  Savinian  and  Potentian.^  One  reason  for  this  choice 
may  be  the  desire  to  exalt  especially  the  earliest  heralds  of  the 
Gospel ;  but  the  stronger  reason  must  be  the  local  pride  of  the  poet, 
as  member  of  a  community  that  held  them  in  special  honor.  The 
proverb  holds  good  here :    Chescuns  prestres  ses  reliques  loue. 

Accepting  this  theory,  everything  becomes  of  interest  and  import- 
ance that  concerns  Sens  and  the  abbey  St.  Pierre-le-Vif,  as  they 
were  in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  Among  the  documents 
that   afford    us    light    on    the    subject   are   chronicles   of    the    two 

^Its  archbishop,  until  the  fourteenth  century,  claimed  the  title  "primate  of 
France,"  as  an  equal  of  the  archbishop  of  Lyons. 

*  The  bells  cast  at  Auxerre  by  Mangin  Vyard  in  1560  and  still  hanging  in  the  south 
tower  of  the  Sens  cathedral,  St.  Etienne,  are  called  Savinienne  et  Potentienne.  But  the 
poet's  monastery  was  demolished  at  the  time  of  the  Kevolution,  tho  its  name  survives 
in  that  of  the  east  part  of  the  present  city,  it  is  said.  See  Quantin's  Dictionnaire 
topographique  de  V  Yonne,  article  Sens. 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  5 

monasteries  above  mentioned.  Tiie  chronicler  of  St.  Columba  is 
anonymous ;  but  two  monks,  known  to  us  by  name,  Odorannus  and 
Clarius,  separated  by  a  century,  wrote  of  St.  Pierre-le-Vif.  The 
former  recites  at  length  the  recovery,  thru  a  dream  of  Queen 
Constance,  King  Robert's  wife,  in  1025,  of  the  precious  relics, 
hidden  and  forgotten  at  the  time  of  the  Norman  invasion,  genera- 
tions before.  In  both  chronicles  abundant  proof  is  afforded  of  the 
reverence  in  which  SS.  Savinian  and  Potentian  were  held  by  the 
people  of  Sens  and  by  the  monks  of  St.  Pierre-le-Vif.  Indeed  the 
monastery  is  sometimes  called  by  the  names  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 
Savinian^  joined  together.  The  chronicle  of  Clarius,  who  wrote 
early  in  the. twelfth  century,  has  considerable  interest  for  us.  He 
describes  with  unusual  intelligence  and  enthusiasm  several  of  the 
chief  ecclesiastical  events  of  his  own  time,  which  he  witnessed  or 
participated  in.  Yet  he  keeps  himself  in  the  background,  barely 
mentioning  his  own  name  in  narrating  what  was  probably  his 
proudest  achievement :  namely,  his  service  as  substitute  for  the 
Abbot  Arnaldus  and  the  Archbishop  Daimbert  on  an  occasion  of 
great  moment  for  the  community.  After  narrating  the  abbot's 
efforts  in  defence  of  the  monastery,  endangered  in  its  rights  by 
grasping  neighbors,  Clarius  ends  his  chronicle  by  reciting  his  chief's 
labors  for  the  library.  This  had  been  almost  destroyed  by  fire  in 
1095,  shortly  before  his  election  as  abbot.  He  made  it  his  task 
to  preserve  and  multiply  the  books  of  the  monastery,  and  to  devise 
means  for  their  preservation  thenceforward.  In  order  to  more  fully 
render  this  important  service  he  finally  resigned  his  high  position. 
The  collection  due  so  largely  to  his  efforts  consisted,  in  the  year 
1123,  of  twenty  volumes,  a  catalog  of  which  the  chronicle  gives. 
This  loyal  tribute  of  Clarius  to  his  abbot,  and  the  book-list,  form 
the  conclusion.^ 

'See  Duru's  Bibliothhque  historique  de  P  Yonne,  ii,  294-314,  564-566;  Fassio  SS. 
Samniani  et  Potentiani,  sociorumque  eorum,  etc.  ;  charters  of  Pope  Honorius  II, 
Archbishop  Eicher,  Hugues  and  Constance  of  Champagne.  Cf.  also  the  chronicle 
of  Clarius,  annis  1108,  1110,  1117.  Savinian  appears  to  enjoy  a  sort  of  primacy  as 
compared  with  his  traditional  companions.  In  the  Grande  Encyclopedic,  under  the 
article  Savinien,  M.  Prou  treats  the  entire  group. 

^See  Histoire  litteraire  de  la  France,  xiii,  38;  Duru's  Bibliothique  historique  de 
V  Yonne,  ii,  Chron.  Clarii,  anno  1123  ;  D'Ach^ry,  Spicilegium,  ii,  484,  485. 


6  THE  ERUGTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM. 

It  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  library  ecouomy  so  pious  and 
strenuous  as  that  of  Arnaldus  ^  was  effective  in  preserving  and 
enlarging  the  monastery's  store  of  books.  If  so,  those  listed  in 
1123  by  Clarius,  and  others  beside  were  accessible  to  our  writer 
when,  some  fifty  years  later,  lie  sought  material  of  which  to  weave 
his  poem. 

In  the  collection  listed  in  1123,  next  to  the  various  books  of  the 
Bible  (which  are  given  in  the  order  required  for  reading  during 
the  year),  the  works  of  Gregory  the  Great  are  most  prominent.  In 
fact  there  was  a  complete  set  of  his  expository  writings,  excepting 
only  the  Homilies  on  Ezekiel  and  the  latter  half  of  the  Moralia  in 
Job,  The  three  works  now  regarded  as  spurious  are  not  mentioned. 
Probably  the  missing  works  are  more  than  compensated  for  by  the 
work  which  Clarius  numbers  viii,  to  which  the  simple  title  Paterius 
is  given.  This  must  have  been  the  compilation  by  Paterius,  disciple 
of  Gregory  the  Great,  of  the  latter's  Bible  quotations  and  comments 
thereon,  iisually  called  the  Liber  Testimoniorum.  Only  one  work  of 
Augustine  is  in  the  list,  the  Tractatus  in  Episiolam  Johannis.  It 
is  the  third  of  the  collection,  and  is  mentioned  among  the  volumes 
of  Scripture.  In  the  fourth  volume  mention  is  begun  of  Gregory's 
works. 

There  is  no  record  of  fire  again  destroying  the  abbey  of  St.  Pierre- 
le-Vif  within  the  period  that  especially  concerns  us.  In  1147,  to 
be  sure,  the  abbot  Herbertus  (altho  with  Theobaldus,  abbot  of  St. 
Columba,  he  had  enlisted  for  Louis  VII's  crusade)  was  killed  by  an 
uprising  of  townspeople.  His  successor,  Gerardus,  introduced  the 
Cluny  regulations,  probably  insuring  better  discipline  during  his 
rule,  which  ended  in  1167  by  resignation.  In  his  time  and  in  the 
next  twenty  years  occur  events  which  must  have  brought  to  the 
knowledge,  and  even  before  the  eyes,  of  our  poet  some  of  the 
greatest  personages  of  the  time  :  the  King  of  France,  the  Count  of 

'The  words  of  Clarius  make  it  plain  that  the  rules  of  Arnaldus  were  really 
enforced  :  Excommunicavit  enim  omnes  indifferenter  qui  aliquem  vel  aliquos 
suscriptorum  librorum,  vel  venderent,  vel  accommodarent,  vel  aliqiio  modo  efficerent, 
quo  ecclesia  perderet,  et  librum  non  rehaberet.  Ipse  enim  Deo  optulit,  et  qua 
custodia  potuit  munivit.     Duru's  work,  cited  above,  Chron.  Clani,  anno  1123. 


THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN*  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  7 

Champagne,  the  Archbishop  of  Sens,  Pope  Alexander  III  and 
Thomas  Becket,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  The  two  great  princes 
of  the  church  last  named  were  exiles,  being  in  controversy  with 
the  two  most  powerful  monarchs  of  their  generation,  Frederick 
Barbarossa  and  Henry  II  of  England. 

The  Archbishop  of  Sens,  whose  suffragans  were  among  the  most 
powerful  prelates  of  northern  France  (four  of  them  within  the 
dominions  of  the  house  of  Champagne),  was  at  this  time  Hugues 
de  Toucy.^  He  had  presided  over  the  Council  of  Beaugency  in 
1152  at  which  was  pronounced  the  sentence  of  divorce  releasing 
Louis  VII  from  his  wife  Eleanor.  He  anointed  this  King's  second 
and  third  queens,  Constance  in  1154,  and  Adela  or  Alix  of  Cham- 
pagne in  1160.  In  the  latter  year  were  found  the  remains  of 
SS.  Potentian  and  Altin,^ — of  St.  Savinian  too,  says  Gulielmus 
Godellus, — by  the  same  energetic  primate,  to  whom  are  attributed 
five  other  inventions.^ 

His  successor  in  1168  was  Guillaume  aux  Blanches-Mains,  a 
shining  example  of  the  high-born  boy-bishop  of  the  time,^  a  younger 
son  of  the  house  of  Champagne, — splendidi^simus  juvenls  domnus,  as 
Gulielmus  Godellus  calls  him,  in  recording  his  election  in  1164  as 
bishop  of  Chartres.     Two  years  before,  he  had  been  chosen  arch- 

^  See  Recueil  des  historiens  des  Gaules  el  de  la  France,  xir,  127. 

*  Yet  it  seems  that  some  at  least  of  the  relics  thus  recovered  did  not  long  remain 
the  property  of  St.  Pierre-le-Vif.  For  in  1167  Henri  I  of  Champagne  bought  from 
the  monastery  the  bones  of  SS.  Potentian  and  Altin  in  return  for  certain  real  estate 
at  Provins  and  Xaud.  This  sale  was  probably  not  known  to  the  public.  I  have  not 
found  it  mentioned  in  any  chronicle.  The  charter  recording  the  transaction,  how- 
ever, is  listed  as  no.  150  of  the  acts  of  Henri  I :  see  D'Arbois  de  Jubainville, 
Histoire,  iii,  pp.  181,  182,  353.  It  should  be  noted  that  Troyes,  for  whose  cathedral 
the  pious  count  was  collecting  relics,  has  a  locjil  saint  of  the  name  Sabinian  or 
Savinian,  so  familiar  at  Sens. 

At  a  later  time  some  of  the  precious  remains  were  claimed  in  yet  another  place. 
For  in  1218  it  required  a  formal  inquest,  conducted  by  Peter  of  Corbeil,  Archbishop 
of  Sens,  in  the  presence  of  illustrious  men,  to  prove  unfounded  the  claims  of  the 
Jouarre  nuns  to  be  in  possession  of  all  St.  Savinian's  relics. 

*See  Gallia  Christiana,  xii,  49  A  ;  Recueil  des  historiens,  etc.,  xi:i,  677. 

*Altho  urged  by  the  parents  of  Guillaume,  St.  Bernard  refused  to  get  for  him 
ecclesiastical  preferment.  See  Morrison's  St.  Bernard,  432;  D'Arbois,  Histoire,  ii, 
464. 


8         THE  ERUGTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

bishop  of  Lyons  by  the  chapter  which  thought  thus  to  strengthen 
the  Emperor's  cause  in  France.^  But  he  never  entered  the  office. 
As  archbishop  of  Sens  and,  after  1178,  archbishop  of  Reims,  papal 
legate  and  cardinal,  he  rendered  conspicuous  service  to  his  time. 
His  official  relations  (records  of  which  in  the  form  of  letters  and 
charters  are  extant)  with  Thomas  Becket,  Pope  Alexander  III, 
Louis  VII,  his  brother-in-law,  and  Pliilip  Augustus,  are  well 
known.  He  asserted  ecclesiastical  control  in  and  about  Sens, 
vesting  the  oversight  of  the  ludus  literarius  in  his  precentor.^  He 
fostered  trade  and  learning,  promoted  the  growth  of  the  communes 
in  a  way  that  served  other  towns  as  a  model.^  But  the  chroniclers 
say  he  was  ambitious,  and  that  not  content  with  anointing  Philip 
Augustus  in  1179  at  Reims,  he  begrudged  his  successor  Guy," 
archbishop  of  Sens,  the  honor  of  crowning  him  at  Paris  in  1180. 
At  his  solicitation,  it  is  said,  the  Pope  confirmed  to  the  archbishop 
of  Reims  the  right  to  thus  enthrone  the  King  of  France. 

Prelates  even  more  ambitious  had  at  an  earlier  day  drawn  much 
attention  to  Sens.  Here  from  October  30,  1163,  until  Easter, 
1165,  Pope  Alexander  III  resided,  regis  expends  sustentus,  forced 
by  the  Emperor  to  seek  refuge  in  France.  About  a  year  later  the 
exiled  and  fugitive  Primate  of  England,  Thomas  Becket,  began  his 
long  stay  at  the  monastery  of  St.  Columba,  whose  shelter  he  left 
only  a  few  months  before  returning  to  his  post  of  danger  and  death. 
While  at  Sens  or  in  the  vicinity,  he  must  have  received  from  John 
of  Salisbury,  a  fellow  exile  but  a  gentler  spirit,  the  letter  advising 
a  change  in  his  reading  matter :  the  Psalms  and  the  Morals  of 
St.  Gregory  instead  of  canon  law  and  scholastic  philosophy.* 

The  king  of  France  was  often  seen  and  his  power  was  felt  in 
Sens.     Louis  VI    in    1121,   speaking   as    "the    eldest    son    of  the 

^  Henri  I,  count  of  Champagne,  his  older  brother,  was  at  the  time  wavering  between 
Pope  Alexander  III  and  the  Emperor.  The  latter' s  candidate  for  the  papacy,  or  the 
anti-pope  Octavian,  was  besides  a  kinsman  of  Henri.  See  D'Arbois,  Histoire,  iii, 
47-54;  Fournier,  Boyaume  d' Aries,  etc.,  42. 

^See  Gallia  Christiana,  xii,  52. 

'D'Arbois,  Histoire,  iii,  185,  237,  272;  iv,  393,  705,  716. 

*See  Epistola  138,  anno  1165,  Migne,  cxcix,  117,  118. 


THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM.  9 

Church,"  made  an  effective  protest  against  the  Pope's  purpose  to , 
render  the  ancient  see  of  Sens  dependent  on  Lyons.'  In  the 
forty-three  years  of  his  reign  Louis  VII  made  the  town  a  score 
of  visits,^  In  1146  he  punished  unsparingly  the  uprising  that  had 
killed  the  Abbot  Herbertus.  Ten  years  later  he  renounced  in  favor 
of  the  see  of  Sens  the  droit  de  dipouilks  which  at  the  archbishop's 
death  had  been  wont  to  cause  annoyance  and  oppression. 

But  in  its  ordinary  life  Sens  felt  more  directly  and  strongly  the 
influence  of  the  counts  of  Champagne.  The  geographical  position 
of  the  town  in  part  explains  this  fact.  Situated  in  the  extreme 
southeast  of  the  king's  dominions,  it  was  on  a  sort  of  narrow 
peninsula  (the  lower  Yonne  valley)  in  the  sea  of  territory  belonging 
to  the  count  of  Champagne  or  to  those  who  owned  him  as  suzerain. 
These,  at  the  time  that  concerns  us,  were  chiefly  the  numerous  and 
energetic  children  of  Thibaut  II :  three  sous  and  four  daughters. 
Deduction  is  made  for  the  prelate,  Guillaume  aux  Blanches-Mains, 
Queen  Alix  (both  of  whom,  however,  stood  strongly  for  family 
interests).  Marguerite,  nun  of  Fontevrault,  and  Marie,  the  oldest 
sister,  who  retired  thither  and  became  abbess  after  the  death  of  her 
husband,  Eudes  II,  and  the  minority  of  her  son,  Hugues  III  of 
Burgundy.  The  fiefs  of  the  family,^  now  called  after  Champagne 
rather  than  Blois,  lay  in  nineteen  of  the  present  departments 
of  France,  and  were  greater  in  extent  and  power  than  the  royal 
dominions.  These  they  enclosed  on  all  but  the  northwest  side. 
The  main  traveled  roads  of  the  region  led  to  Sens.  The  six  annual 
fairs  of  Champagne  (two  each  at  Provins  and  Troyes,  one  each  at 
Bar-sur-Aube  and  Lagny)  brought  thousands  of  merchants  and  their 
goods.  The  counts  of  Champagne  guaranteed  safe  passage,  and  acted 
vigorously  to  punish  robbery  on  the  way  thither,  even  when  it 
occurred  on  the  king's  highway.  Besides,  the  archbishop  of  Sens 
was  one  of  the  few  overlords  to  whom  the  counts  owed  fealty.* 

At  four  of  these  fairs  of  Champagne  the  monks  of  St.  Pierre-le- 

1  Luchaire,  Actes  de  Louis  VI,  anno  1121. 

"  Luchaire,  Actes  de  Louis  VII,  table  of  charters. 

'D'Arbois,  Histoire,  ii,  428. 

*  Ibidem,  iv,  884,  887. 


10  THE  ERUOTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

Vif  had  enjoyed,  we  know  not  how  long,  an  important  commercial 
privilege  {le  poids).  They  were  the  official  weighers.  This  privilege 
was  confirmed  to  the  monastery  in  1174  by  Henri  I  in  a  charter  still 
extant.^ 

In  the  war  between  Queen  Constance  and  her  son,  Henri  I,  in 
1031,  one  half  of  the  town  Sens  was  given  to  Eudes  I  of  Champagne. 
The  abbey  St.  Pierre-le-Vif  w^as  included  in  the  cession.  When 
peace  was  made,  the  count  yielded  possession.  But  the  right  of 
lodgement,  the  droit  de  gite,  enjoyed  probably  ever  after  by  the  counts 
of  Champagne,^  remained  as  a  survival  of  the  brief  ownership.  This 
right  entitled  the  count  and  his  train  to  free  entertainment  once  a 
year.  One  can  see  what  interest  on  both  sides  must  have  arisen 
from  the  exercise  of  this  right  during  four  or  five  generations.  It 
goes  far  towards  explaining  why  our  poet  should  write  for  the 
countess  of  Champagne. 

Henri  T  and  his  wife  were  thoroughly  representative  of  their 
time.  When  only  twenty  years  old.  Count  Henri  went  on  the 
Second  Crusade.  At  the  request  of  St.  Bernard,  whose  letter  of 
recommendation  he  bore,  he  was  knighted  by  Manuel,  Emperor  of 
Constantinople.^  By  his  conduct  in  the  crusade  he  won  the  praise  of 
Louis  VII.  He  afterwards  participated  too  vigorously  in  knightly 
tournaments,  incurring  but  disregarding  the  rebuke  of  St.  Bernard.* 
His  many  gifts  to  religious  establishments'  were  in  those  years 
earning  him  the  title  of  "the  Liberal."  In  1179  he  went  a  second 
time  on  crusade.  Immediately  before  his  departure  two  of  his 
four  children,  named  like  their  parents  Marie  and  Henri,  were 
betrothed  to  the  house  of  Hainaut.  His  return  from  Palestine 
occurred  in  the  spring  of  1181.  He  stopped  on  the  way  at  Sens, 
where  he  met  the  young  king  Philip  Augustus,  and  died  at  Troyes, 
March  1 6,  a  few  days  later.     During  his  stay  at  Sens  he  may  have 

^  D'Arbois,    Hisfoire,   iii,   367,  charter  230;  also  chap.  8  of  the  same  volume; 
Morrison's  St.  Bernard,  139. 
'D'Arbois,  Histoire,  i,  146,  310-314;  iv,  620,  621. 
^D'Arbois,  Histoire,  in,  14. 
*D'Arbois,  Histoire,  in,  18,  22. 
^Ibidem,  172-176. 


THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FEENCH  POEM.  U 

claimed  his  right  of  lodgement  at  St.  Pierre-le-Vif ;  but  of  this 
there  is  no  evidence. 

Charter  326,  however,  is  proof  that  Marie  respected  her  deceased 
husband's  wishes.'  She  was  seconded  also  in  so  doing  by  his  brother, 
the  archbishop  Guillaume  of  Reims.  The  charter  in  question 
promised  to  the  Laugres  cathedral  an  annual  gift  of  thirty  livres,  to 
be  taken  from  the  fair  of  Bar-le-Duc.  The  gift  was  in  fulfilment  of 
a  vow  made  by  Henri  while  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the  Turks, 
who  had  captured  him  as  he  returned  from  Palestine.  He  was 
released  by  the  influence  of  the  Emperor  of  Constantinople. 

Altho  Count  Henri  I  was  by  no  means  indiifereut  to  literary 
culture,  he  does  not  seem  to  have  encouraged  composition  in  the 
vernacular.^  This  honor,  both  by  history  and  tradition,  is  awarded 
to  his  wife,  the  Countess  Marie.  Chretien  de  Troyes  acknowledges 
her  encouragement  and  suggestions.  Poets  less  famous  shared  her 
patronage  or  at  least  addressed  their  works  to  her.' 

The  year  1164  might  at  first  thought  seem  to  present  the  most 
fitting  occasion  for  oifering  to  the  countess  what  claims  to  be  the 
translation  of  an  epithalamium,  a  ehamjon  de  chambre,  as  it  is  called 
in  1.  2075.  For  in  that  year  Marie  became  the  wife  of  Henri  I 
of  Champagne.  But  there  is  no  proof  of  this  early  date.  The 
absence  of  all  allusion  in  the  Eruetavit  to  this  eminent  crusader  aud 
benefactor  of  the  Church  argues  that  he  was  no  longer  alive  when 
the  poem  was  made  public. 

There  is  perhaps  some  internal  evidence  for  a  much  later  date. 
It  is  the  passage,  11.  1910-1960,  where  David  comforts  the  Church, 
the  Queen  of  the  allegory,  for  her  children  who  had  died  as 
martyrs.  There  would  appear  some  fitness  in  a  reference  to  the 
death  of  Marie's  crusader  son,  Henri  II,  who  was  killed,  probably 

'  Ibidem,  109,  383. 

^  The  direction  of  his  literary  interest  is  shown  probably  by  the  name,  Scholastique, 
given  to  one  of  his  daughters.  She  became  the  wife  of  Guillaume,  count  of  Macon. 
Guiot  of  Proving  addresses  him  in  song.  This  poet  also  (after  a  worldly  life  and  a 
brief  experience  of  the  Cistercian  order)  was  a  Benedictine.  See  D'Arbois,  Histoire, 
III,  188-208  ;  iv,  657,  677  ;  Histoire  litleraire  de  la  France,  xviii,  808. 

'See  G.  Paris,  Romania,  xii,  523  ;  D'Arbois,  Histoire,  iv,  634-660. 


12  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

by  accident,  at  Acre,  September  10,  1197,  six  months  before  his 
mother  died  at  Meaux.  His  official  position,  as  titular  King  of 
Jerusalem,  rendered  his  death  a  serious  loss  to  the  Christian  cause 
in  the  East.  Pope  Innocent  III,  altho  regarding  Henri  as  an 
adulterer  and  his  tragic  end  as  a  divine  judgment,  wrote  to  the 
archbishops  of  Reims  and  Sens,  and  to  the  bishop  of  Meaux, 
urging  that  comfort  and  protection  be  extended  to  Marie.  She 
died  without  receiving  either,^  and  without  seeing  the  completion 
of  the  devout  poem,  la  Gen^e,  which  Evrat  was  preparing  for  her. 
Probably  she  never  saw  the  Eructavit,  if  it  was  begun  after  the 
death  of  Henri  II.  But  there  is  strong  probability,  I  think,  of 
an  earlier  date. 

For  the  passage  containing  an  apparent  reference  to  her  bereave- 
ment, 11.  1910-1960,  finds  sufficient  motive  in  the  death  of  Henri  I, 
her  husband,  in  1181.  He  too  was  really  a  victim  of  the  crusade, — 
his  family  connection  furnished  many,^ — and  therefore,  according 
to  current  opinion,  he  was  a  martyr  of  the  faith.  The  poet's 
opportunity  then  was,  most  probably,  this  bereavement,  which  came 
only  about  a  year  after  the  death  of  her  father.  King  Louis  VII. 
Even  at  an  earlier  date  Marie,  perhaps,  had  shown  inclination  for 
a  more  devout  life.^  The  cares  of  administration  and  repeated 
negociations  for  the  marriages  of  her  children  were  among  her 
burdens  even  before  the  death  of  Henri  I.  The  outlay  caused  by 
his  last  crusade,  involving  probably  his  ransom  from  captivity,  will 
explain  the  poet's  expression,  in  11.  3-14,  of  solicitude  lest  he  and 
others  suffer  in  consequence  of  her  generous  expenditure. 

This  passage,  already  quoted  on  p.  2,  is  probably  more  than  a 

^  In  her  last  days  she  was  without  the  presence  of  the  confessor  for  whom  she  had 
sent.  He  arrived  too  late,  and  found  that  the  servants  had  pillaged  the  palace, 
neglecting  and  even  treating  with  indignity  the  lady's  corpse.  See  Histoire  litteraire, 
XVI,  439;  D'Arbois,  Histoire,  iv,  157. 

^Between  1181  and  1197  the  crusades  by  battle  and  disease  took  the  lives  of 
Henri  I;  his  brothers,  Thibaut  of  Blois,  "last  seneschal  of  the  King  of  France," 
and  Etienne  of  Sancerre  ;  his  nephew,  Hugues  III  of  Burgundy  ;  his  son,  Henri  II  ; 
Philip  of  Flanders,  second  patron  of  Chretien  of  Troyes  and  ally  of  the  Champagne- 
Blois  family. 

'  See  W.  Foerster,  Cliges,  x,  in  Bomanische  Bibliothek,  i. 


c     ^'^ 


THE  ERUGTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  13 

poet's  conventional  request  for  a  reward.  The  generosity  for  which 
the  lady  is  complimented  may  well  have  increased  her  financial 
straits.  They  were  to  become  more  severe  during  her  second 
regency.^ 

All  the  conditions,  however,  required  by  the  dedication  of  a 
devout  poem  to  Marie  of  Champagne  and  implied  in  the  lines  last 
quoted  seem  to  exist  soon  after  the  death  of  Count  Henri  I  in 
March,  1181. 

The  most  fitting  occasion  for  presenting  the  poem  to  the  widowed 
countess  in  person  occurred,  I  think,  in  1185.  For  at  the  end  of 
that  year, — in  the  Advent  season,  a  fitting  time  for  the  appearance 
of  a  Christmas  psalm,  such  as  the  poet  claims  (11.  1 5  ff.)  to  have 
made,  —  she  was  at  Sens,  honorably  received  by  King  Philip 
Augustus  in  a  conference  that  included  also  her  brothers-in-law, 
Archbishop  Guillaume  of  Reims,  Count  Etienne  of  Sancerre,  Count 
Thibaut  the  Good  of  Blois,  and  their  nephew,  Hugues  III  of 
Burgundy.^  The  conference  was  for  the  purpose  of  reconciling  the 
king  with  the  powerful  Champagne  family  which  had  long  been  in 
opposition,  having  taken  the  side  of  Philip  of  Flanders  in  his 
quarrel  with  his  former  ward.  On  Mariie's  side  especially  there 
was  much  to  forget;  for  the  young  king  had  married  Elizabeth 
of  Hainaut,  altho  she  had  long  been  betrothed  to  Marie's  son 
Henri  II.  But  a  reconciliation  was  effected.  We  may  regard  as  one 
of  the  incidents  of  this  occasion  the  presentation  of  the  Eructavit  by 
its  writer  to  the  Countess  Marie.  Yet  the  point  is  one  that  cannot 
be  proved  absolutely.  The  probability  of  this  earlier  date,  1185, 
seems  to  me  the  greater,  altho  it  must  be  granted  that  no  year 
between  1181  and  1198,  the  year  of  Marie's  death,  can  be  fixed 
upon  with  certainty. 

The  poet's  character,  his  mental  furnishing  and  his  purpose  appear 

^The  financial  demands  made  on  Champagne  for  Henri  IPs  seven  years  (1190- 
1197)  in  the  Holy  Land  were  doubtless  very  great.  Some  of  his  debts  (and  his 
mother's,  incurred  in  his  behalf)  were  assumed  by  his  brother,  Thibaut  III.  Henri 
II  had  raised  a  great  sum  before  his  departure  by  the  aide,  an  extraordinary  levy 
intended  for  such  a  crisis.     See  D'Arbois,  Histoire,  iv,  70,  86,  97  ;  v,  charter  459. 

*See  D'Arbois, if isfotr-e,  v,  6,  9. 


14  THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

quite  plainly  in  his.  prod  action.  His  expression  is  labored  and  trite 
at  times,  but  he  always  utters  devout  thought  and  usually  in  bib- 
lical terms.  The  selection  of  a  psalm  as  a  theme  is  not  surprising 
in  a  Benedictine.  The  Eructavit  is  in  general  such  a  poem  as  one 
would  expect  from  a  monk  possessing  some  literary  skill  and 
ambition  with  a  desire  to  edify  and  admonish.  He  is  not  servile  in 
his  manner  of  address,  but  rather  magnifies  his  office  as  interpreter 
of  divine  things.  He  turns,  as  he  alleges,  a  Latin  original  into  the 
vernacular  that  it  may  be  completely  understood,  "  unless  folly 
deceive."     His  work  is  to  arrange  it  and  turn  it  into  rime  : 

LI.  15-20.  LI.  139-144. 

Le  jor  de  Noel  au  matin  De  latin  I'a  an  romanz  traite 

Nos  dist  sainte  eglise  an  latin  Au  miauz  qu'il  puet  oil  qui  I'afaite. 

Le  saume  que  je  vos  comanz  ;  Oiant  toz  bons  clers,  dist  il  bien 

Metre  le  vos  vuel  an  romanz,  Qu'il  n'i  a  antrepris  de  rien 

Si  porroiz  prandre  que  que  soit,  Fors  la  androit  ou  rime  faut, 

Se  folic  ne  vos  deyoit.  S'i  met  le  mot  qui  autant  vaut. 

This  would  imply  that  the  lady  needs  a  translator,  and  the  following 
passages,  that  she  is  to  hear  rather  than  read  for  herself : 

LI.  1749,  1750.  LI.  1687,  1688. 

Cist  vers  apres  conte  la  joie,  Qui  bien  orroit  et  antandroit 

S'est  bien  droiz  que  ma  dame  I'oie.    Que  cist  vers  conte  ci  androit  .  .  . 

The  writer  conforms  to  the  literary  conventions  of  his  time.  The 
beginning  of  the  poem  especially,  11.  7-14,  is  after  the  manner  of  a 
minstrel  addressing  a  patron,  and  hints,  as  already  shown,  that 
remuneration  is  expected.  He  even  attributes  to  David,  joculator 
Dei,  at  heaven's  gate,  a  similar  request  in  11.  235-238  : 

Juglerre  sui,  sages  et  duiz  ;  Ce  sai  je  bien  que  les  sodees 

Se  le  roi  plaisoit  mes  deduiz,  Me  seroient  mout  granz  donees. 

He  employs  a  current  literary  fiction  also  in  claiming  to  be  merely 
a  translator,  as  I  shall  try  to  show.  Another  characteristic  of 
medieval  clerical  literature  is  the  vision,  such  as  David  begins  at  I. 
159. 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,    AN  OLD  FEENCH  POEM.  15 

Nowhere  does  our  poet  speak  of  having  renounced  a  worldly  life 
for  the  service  of  religion,  a  change  so  common  in  his  day.  He 
seems  one  content  with  his  circumscribed  lot,  who,  however,  looks  out 
from  the  seclusion  of  the  monastery  upon  the  great  world  with 
intelligence  and  interest.  Tho  himself  devout  and  single-hearted,  he 
knows  that  not  all  are  worthy  in  the  high  places  of  state,  or  even  in 
church  and  cloister.'  He  possesses  some  simple  wisdom  and  utters 
it  in  quotable  form  : 

LI.  591,  592.  LI.  601,  602. 

Mout  sent  la  menue  jant  lie  La  ou  droiz  et  justise  dure 

Quant  lor  princes  a  d'aus  pitie.  Est  la  terre  sauve  et  seiire. 

LI.  1273,  1274.  LI.  1291,  1292. 

Quant  jantis  euers  a  Deu  s'adrece.     Car  se  ce  que  Deu  plaist  ne  fait 
Lors  est  doble  la  jantilece.  Qui  plus  i  puet,  plus  i  mesfait. 

LI.  1305,  1306.  LI.  1499,  1500. 

Amez  Deu  et  justise  et  pais,  Qui  le  mal  fait  et  le  bien  faint 

Si  regneroiz  a  toz  jorz  mais.  Ne  dessert  mie  que  Deus  Taint. 

In  11.  733,  734  he  makes  a  pun,  by  merely  omitting  a  letter : 

Mout  devriens  avoir  Tare  chier, 
Et  mout  devons  amer  I'archier. 

Observe  the  parallelism  in  the  above  quotation  and  in  the 
following  one,  11.  1170—1172,  where  chiasm  also  appears: 

Qui  leaute  aime  et  covoite, 
Qui  het  pechie  et  felonie 
Bien  doit  avoir  haute  baillie. 

Our  writer  is  alive  to  the  etymological  meaning  of  words : 

LI.  1196,  1197.    Jhesu  Criz  an  estes  nomez  : 
Ce  est  sauverres  ancresmez. 

^  The  passage,  11.  1509-1540,  is  too  long  for  quotation, 


16  THE  ERUCTAVJT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

The  following  lines,  777,  778,  occur  after  a  couplet  containing 
the  names  of  SS.  Savinian  and  Potentian  : 

Selon  lor  nons  la  vertu  orent, 
Qu'anbedui  sorent  mout  et  porent. 

A  proverb  appears  to  receive  a  new  turn  in  11.  1511,  1512  : 

N'est  mais  esposee  le  roi, 
Qu'an  son  anel  n'a  que  le  doi. 

In  an  earnest  passage  upon  the  duty  of  earthly  rulers  and  the 
shortness  of  life,  an  unusual  word  is  used,  aergie  or  cergUe,  to 
express  the  duration  or  time  of  a  taper's  burning.  It  is  not  found 
in  Godefroy,  nor  have  I  found  it  elsewhere  : 

LI.  1297,  1298.    Vie  d'ome  est  si  abregiee 

Que  ce  n'est  mes  qu'une  cergiee. 

We  see  in  many  other  places  also  not  a  little  skill  and  some 
originality.  Yet  we  cannot  claim  for  him  a  high  place  among 
poets.  His  limitations  are  plain.  Nevertheless,  tho  his  art  and 
esprit  de  suite  are  open  to  criticism,  we  cannot  withold  admiration 
for  something  far  more  important.  He  shows  courage  and  humanity 
in  standing  for  an  unpopular  cause :  toleration  for  the  Jew  and  the 
Turk.     The  passage,  11.  839-848,  deserves  quotation  : 

Deus  comanda,  n'an  dotez  mie,  A  que  nos  alons  au  besoing. 

Des  Jueus  que  nus  nes  ocie  ;  Autretel  peons  des  Turs  dire  : 

Ainz  les  laissons  autre  nos  vivre,  Por  ce  les  suefre  uostre  Sire, 

Per  ce  qu'an  lor  loi  sent  li  livre  Qu'a  aus  peons  nes  apar9eivre 

De  nostre  foi  et  li  tesmoing  De  quel  vilt€  nos. somes  soivre. 

Attentive  reading  of  the  Eructavit  affords  no  means  of  identifying 
the  writer.  We  must  continue  to  call  him,  as  did  Prosper  Tarb6, 
VAnonyme  de  St.  Pierre-le-Vif.  We  must  grant  that  he  shares  the 
current  thought  of  his  age  in  speaking  of /i  Juif  contralieus,  11.  127— 
133,  and  of  the  caviling  Jew  in  11.  1158-1179.  But  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  be  able  to  credit  him  with  sentiments  of  toleration  so  far  in 
advance  of  his  time. 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM.  17 


II.   The  Poem's  Contents  and  PlaSt. 

In  the  outline  here  oifered,  three  things  are  sought :  to  state  in 
order  the  themes  and  substance  of  the  various  divisions ;  to  give  in 
their  places  the  verses  or  phrases  of  the  Latin  Psalm  which  serve 
as  headings  in  most  of  the  manuscripts ;  to  note  the  number  of  lines 
in  each  division. 


The  address  to  the  patroness  and  the  announcement  of  the  poet's 
purpose :  to  turn  from  Latin  into  Romance  the  Psalm  that  the 
Church  says  on  Christmas  day  in  the  morning.  LI.  1-20. 

Introduction,  first  part :  David  as  a  minstrel  at  heaven's  gate, 
desiring  to  celebrate  the  Incarnation. 

As  a  king,  preparing  for  his  son's  marriage,  sends  word  to  his 
lords  and  causes  minstrels  to  sing  and  play,  so  God  by  the  prophets 
heralded  the  coming  of  his  Son. 

David,  one  of  the  prophets,  composed  this  song.  He  offered 
himself  as  jongleur  long  before  the  marriage  of  God  and  the  Church, 
announced  by  the  angel  Gabriel.  David,  sitting  like  a  real  penitent, 
was  given  a  vision.  An  angel  led  him  to  heaven's  door,  but  it  was 
closed  by  Adam's  fall.  Abashed,  yet  eager  to  enter,  David,  instead 
of  calling,  plays  his  viol  and  begins  this  song  :  "  JEructavit  cor  meum 
verbum  bonum  ;  dioo  ego  opera  mea  regV  LI.  21-204. 

Introduction,  second  part :  Dialog  between  David,  asking  entrance 
and  offering  his  song,  and  a  Voice  from  within,  refusing. 

"If  admitted,  I  should  play  the  viol,  with  the  words,  and  receive 
great  reward  from  the  King  : " 

*  Lingua  mea  calamus  scribae,  velociter  scribentis.' 

"  Tell  me  not  to  write  it.  The  tongue,  impelled  by  the  heart,  will 
express  it  better .  .  .  Let  me  wait  at  the  door  till  the  King  come 
forth  ....     Open  the  door  a  little,  that  I  may  look  in." 

The  angel  lifts  him  up.     He  finds  heaven's  door  open.     With  joy 


18  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

beyond  compare  he  gazes  in  at  the  marriage,  prepares  his  viol,  draws 
the  bow  and  begins  the  words,  singing  of  the  King  and  the  Queen 
nine  verses  each.  LI.  205-366. 

The  King's  beauty. 

Speciosus  forma  pre  filiis  hominum. 

Fairer  than  any  creature  are  you,  O  King.  In  this  beauty  is 
spiritual  might. 

Diffusa  est  gratia  in  labiis  tuis. 

Beautiful  is  your  mouth ;  your  voice,  comforting  and  persuasive. 

Propterea  benedixit  te  Deus  in  eternum. 

Beautiful  shall  you  be  in  the  manger,  at  your  baptism  in  the 
Jordan,  in  your  miracles,  in  blessing  the  bread,  on  Calvary,  at  the 
resurrection  and  ascension.  LI.  367—488. 

The  King's  sword  and  its  power. 

Accingere  gladio  tuo  super  femur  tuum,  potentissime. 

David  longs  to  see  accomplished  what  God  has  decreed,  and  begs 
the  King  to  take  without  delay  his  sword.  This  has  power  to  separate 
the  sinner  from  his  sin,  even  from  hatred.  LI.  489-544. 

David's  praise  of  the  King's  twofold  beauty. 

Specie  tua  et  pulchritudine  tua. 

His  sinless,  human  beauty  draws  to  him  all  the  world.*  His 
divine  beauty  sustains  angels  and  feeds  saints.  His  sweetness, — 
for  him  to  whom  God  gives  to  see  it, — infinitely  surpasses  worldly 
joy.  LI.  545-564. 

David's  appeal  to  the  King  to  begin  his  reign. 

Intende,  prospere,  procede  et  regna. 

David  appeals  coaxingly  to  the  King :  "  All  men  great  and  small 
desire  your  coming.  We,  your  messengers,  have  summoned  angels, 
men,  and  all  the  world  to  praise  you."  LI.  565-586. 

The  King's  three  marks  or  attributes. 

Propter  veritatem  et  viansuetudinem  et  justitiam;  et  deducet  te 
mirahiliter  dexter  a  tua. 

David  reminds  the  King  of  his  truthfulness,  his  pity  and  justice. 
"You  have  promised   to   keep  your  covenant  with   Israel.     Your 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  19 

second  mark  is  pity,  shown  to  the  humble  and  penitent.  Relying  on 
your  third  manner,  we  pray  that  justice  be  dgne  us  upon  the  devil, 
who  overpowers  or  cajoles  us  sinners.  LI.  587-668. 

The  King's  bow  and  arrows. 

Sagittae  tuae  acutae,  populi  sub  te  cadent,  in  corda  inimicorum  regis. 

David  has  delayed  speaking  of  the  King's  arrows  and  of  his 
bended  bow.     In  this  verse  he  teaches  their  meaning. 

The  wood  of  the  bow  was  the  Old  Law.  The  King  itiade  it  mild. 
He  put  on  the  string,  the  Gospel,  which  bends  the  Law  to  send  forth 
the  arrows,  the  apostles. 

From  Jerusalem  the  King  shoots  all  about  to  fulfil  his  truth.  To 
Lombardy  and  Rome  he  shoots  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul ;  to  France, 
right  to  Sens,  two  arrows,  St.  Savinian  and  St.  Potentian.  He  shot 
everywhere.  All  the  earth,  from  the  sunrise  to  Ireland,  was 
conquered.  But  the  Turks  and  Jews  he  left.  "  Many  an  evil  he 
suffered  for  our  good."  LI.  669-874. 

The  King's  throne  and  scepter. 

Sedes  tua,  Deus,  in  seculum  seculi :  virga  direetionis  virga  regni  tui. 

The  throne  stood  on  four  firm  feet  in  the  fairest  spot  of  paradise.  ( 
A  mighty  baron  holds  each  foot,  supporting  the  king  and  bearing 
him  about :  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  Daniel,  Ezekiel.  At  their  sides,  four 
beasts,  each  having  form  according  to  his  senefiance.  These  are  the 
evangelists  :  Matthew  by  Isaiah,  Luke  by  Jeremiah,  Mark  by  Daniel, 
John  by  Ezekiel. 

Now  let  us  hear  how  the  King  has  himself  carried  about.  He  is 
seated  in  the  Holy  Church,  which  wishes  to  endure  and  fight  till 
judgment  day.  These  prophets  and  evangelists  make  the  King 
kuown  to  all  ages. 

The  King's  scepter  is  his  justice.  It  is  the  guiding  rod  wherewith 
the  father  chastises  the  son  whom  he  loves.  LI.  875-1163. 

The  righteous  King  anointed.     David  addresses  him. 

Dilexisti  justitiam,  et  odisti  iniquitatem :  propterea  unxit  te  Deus, 
Deus  tuns,  oleo  laetitiae  prae  consortibus  tuis. 

The  honor  of  the  crowning  is  the  lofty  theme.  A  caviling  question 
of  the  Jew  is  answered  in  scripture  by  David  :  lordship  and  honor 


20  THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

are  his  who  loves  fealty,  hates  sin  and  baseness.     Therefore  the  Son 
of  God  is  exalted  above  angels  and  men. 

Of  this  David  speaks  :  "  O  Lord,  who  love  righteousness  and  hate 
iniquity,  God  who  fills  you  with  his  grace  anoints  you  with  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  Savior  and  King."  LI.  1164-1209. 

The  King's  perfumed  garments  and  the  royal  handmaids. 
Mirra,  el  gutia,  et  cassia  a  vestimentis  tuis,  a  domibus  ehurneis: 
ex  quihus  delectaverunt  tejiliae  regum  in  honore  tuo. 

The  rich  attire,  shaped  by  the  Holy  Spirit  and  given  to  the  King 
by  the  Queen,  was  the  human  form  that  he  took  in  Our  Lady.  The 
sweetness  that  David  smells,  the  wedding  guests  receive  instead  of 
spiced  wine  (jjimant). 

The  myrrh  signifies  the  death  which  Jesus  Christ  suffered  in 
human  form,  restoring  us  to  life. 

The  balm  shows  the  anointing  of  the  resurrection  day. 

The  cassia,  which  thrives  in  watery  places,  signifies  the  true  cross 
which  has  such  power  in  baptism. 

These  odors,  issuing  from  the  King's  garments,  draw  the  soul 
to  adore  this  Lord  so  loving.  Therefore,  David  says,  noble  ladies 
and  maidens  hold  his  service  an  honor.  Nobility  is  doubled  when 
devoted  to  God,  and  baseness  is  ennobled. 

Those  who  have  power,  skill  of  mind,  should  do  what  pleases  God. 
For  you  who  hold  dominion  Solomon  the  king,  divinely  inspired, 
wrote  a  counsel:  "man's  life  is  a  taper's  duration;"  power  is  a  trust 
which  will  be  continued  to  the  worthy  forever.  LI.  1210-1315. 

The  lovely  Queen  in  her  beauteous  garments. 

Ahstitit  regina  a  dexteris  tuis  in  vestitu  de  aurato :  circumdata 
varietate. 

David  has  spoken  of  the  King's  weapons,  apparel  and  beauty. 
He  now  speaks  of  the  Queen  at  his  side.  She  is  to  him  as  dawn 
to  sun.  Her  ornaments  excel  all  that  heart  can  conceive.  The 
King  looks  fondly  upon  her.     In  him  she  sees  her  sole  delight. 

When  David  sees  this  divinely  prepared  marvel  and  this  joy,  he 
determines  to  sing  of  the  Queen,  counseling  her  to  hold  fast  the  joy 
that  it  be  not  lost.  LI.  1316-1351. 


THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM.  21 

David's  fatherly  admonition  to  the  Church. 

Avdi,  jilia,  et  vide,  et  indina  aurem  tuam:  et  obliviscere  populum 
tuum,  et  domum  patns  tui. 

David  speaks  to  the  Church  as  to  his  daughter,  in  her  instructing 
every  Christian  soul. 

"  Hearken  now,  daughter.  Believe  what  all  the  proplK:ts  said, 
promising  thy  Savior  whose  liege  lady  thou  shouldst  be." 

"  Daughter,  before  birth  thou  wast  betrothed  to  him.  See  if  God 
has  not  done  what  he  promised.  Is  there  duke,  king  or  count  like 
him  who  asks  thy  love?  He  maintains  in  their  brightness  sun, 
moon  and  sky." 

"Deceive  not  thy  heart.  Sincere  love  is  all  the  King  asks  of 
thee.  Joyful  must  thou  be,  friend  of  the  heavenly  King.  He  has 
dominion  over  all."  LI.  1352-1472. 

David's  fatherly  admonition  to  the  Church,  concluded. 

Et  concupiscet  rex  decorem  tuum :  quoniam  ipse  est  Dominus,  Dens 
tuus,  et  adorabunt  eum. 

David,  having  instructed  the  Church  how  she  must  conduct 
herself  in  tender  love  to  the  King,  desires  also  to  promise  great 
reward  that  she  may  cheerfully  await  his  coming. 

"  Daughter,  if  thou  love  him,  the  King  will  love  thee.  The 
Holy  Spirit  will  be  thy  messenger.  The  Holy  Spirit  will  bear  thy 
message  to  him.     Be  not  false  or  feigned." 

"  Keep  thyself  from  covetousness  whereby  the  devil  ensnares  both 
bishops  and  deacons.  Simony  will  make  thee  a  false  wife  whose 
finger  only  is  in  the  ring.  If  those  who  receive  high  places  are 
worthy  men,  then  thy  head  will  be  fair  and  gentle  to  all  the 
humble." 

"Tho  the  King  delay,  fear  not;  guard  thine  honor.  If  erring, 
fear  not  to  return.  For  by  Jeremiah  God  assures  thee  that  he  is 
not  proud  and  cruel  as  men  of  the  world  are."  LI.  1473-1620. 

Honor  to  Mary  the  Virgin. 

Et  jiliae  Tyri  in  muneribus  vultum  tuum  deprecabuntur :  omnes 
divites  plebis. 

David  foresaw  that  Saint  Mary  would  be  honored  and  adored. 


22  THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

"  You,  who  shall  be  both  daughter  aud  mother  of  God,  lady  high 
and  glorious,"  says  he,  "  save  virginity  unimpaired.  Nature  obeys 
God.  An  uncorrupted  Man  shall  be  born,  the  Holy  Spirit  over- 
shadowing." LI.  1 621-1 6G8. 

The  Holy  Lady's  adornments. 

Omnis  gloria  ejus  Jiliae  regis  ah  intus,  in  fimbriis  aureis  cir- 
cumamicta  varietatibus. 

This  verse  shows  that  the  Holy  Maid  was  exceeding  fair.  In  her 
heart,  prized  by  the  King  above  all  else,  are  her  ornaments.  Good 
thoughts,  prompting  good  deeds,  are  her  jewels.         LI.  1669—1694. 

Adducentur  regi  virgines  post  earn :  proximae  ejus  ufferentur  tibi. 

Digression  :  David's  portrayal  of  judgment ;  his  warning  against 
pride  (53  lines). — The  King  and  Our  Lady's  glorious  train  (7 
lines). — Digression  :  the  poet's  address  to  the  patroness  (4  lines). 

LI.  1695-1760. 

The  King  and  Queen  attended  with  joy  by  angels  and  the 
saved.  The  manner  of  the  resurrection.  The  cause  of  the  angels' 
joy.     The  happiness  of  the  saved  and  their  crowns. 

Afferentur  in  laetitia  et  exultatione :  adducentur  in  templum  regis. 

By  a  likeness  that  David  narrates  we  can  understand  the  great 
joy  that  God  gives  to  his  own.  In  this  world,  when  the  crown  is 
to  be  assumed,  the  king  and  queen  are  escorted  by  lords  and  people 
with  rejoicing.  Such  joy  as  the  queen  then  feels  the  saved  shall 
have  in  God's  presence. 

Say  not  that  I  imagine  it.  For  each  soul  shall  have  nine  angels 
to  embrace  and  carry  him  about. 

On  that  high  Saturday  angels  shall  go  forth  seeking  souls, 
clothing  them  in  bodies,  bringing  them  with  joy  before  God,  whose 
train  shall  thus  be  made  full. 

The  angels  will  rejoice  because  of  God's  work  and  pity :  He  has 
become  of  our  race  and  has  welcomed  us  as  brothers. 

The  saved  shall  not  delay  serving  and  honoring  him.  They  shall 
have  crowns  of  diflPerent  flowers,  each  as  he  deserves.  Crowns  of 
precious  stones  they  shall  have,  causing  tlie  wearer, — unlike  kings  of 
this  world, — no  care,  no  war,  no  fear  of  death.  LI.  1761-1904. 


THE   EBUCTAVIT,    AN  OLD   FRENCH  POEM.  23 

The  Queen's  offspring;   the  martyrs  of  the  Church. 

Pro  patribus  tuis  nati  sunt  tibi  jilii:  constitues  eos  priiicipes  super 
omnem  terram. 

You  must  set  the  table  for  the  spiritual  feast :  David,  joyful  and 
divinely  inspired,  sings  three  beautiful  verses.  He  goes  within, 
delighted.  He  determines  to  sing  of  the  Queen's  sons,  comfort- 
ing her. 

"  With  deadly  anguish  you  saw  them  slain.  Now  they  are  lords 
of  paradise,  noble  martyrs,  holy  apostles.  Like  the  pains  of  her 
who  bears  a  child  are  your  sorrows  at  their  sufferings,  when  they 
despised  this  world."  LI.  1905-1968. 

Memory  and  gratitude  in  heaven.  Blessed  condition  of  the 
saved.  God  their  sustenance.  Power  and  meaning  of  the  sacra- 
ment.    Death  overcome. 

Memores  erunt  nominis  tui  in  omni  generatione  et  generationem. 

All  those  in  paradise  will  have  in  sense  and  in  memory  that 
God  has  delivered  them  from  destruction.  Praise  will  be  their 
employment.  Boundless  knowledge,  untrammeled  power  of  motion, 
no  need  of  food,  no  bodily  ill,  shall  be  theirs.  God  will  be  their 
food.  The  sacrament  teaches  this.  "Death,  now  do  whatsoever 
thou  canst,  for  thou  thyself  shalt  die  !  "  LI.  1969-2050. 

Universal  praise  to  God.     Joy  surpassing  thought. 

Propterea  populi  conJUebuntur  tibi  in  eternum  ;  et  in  seculum  seculi. 

David  says  that  all  will  join  in  praising  the  Lord.  Each  one 
utters  "  his  good  word  in  sweet  melody,"  none  saying  too  much  or 
too  little.  Of  this  joy  and  praise,  which  eye  hath  not  seen  nor  ear 
heard,  the  Apostle  Paul  tells  us.  LI.  2051-2079. 

Closing  words  on  the  purpose  of  David's  psalm,     LI.  2080-2087. 

Epilogue  or  final  address  to  the  patroness.  LI.  2088-2109. 

The  added  poem:  the  martyred  Isaiah's  thirst  miraculously 
quenched ;  his  efficacious  prayer  recommended ;  the  prayer,  addressed 
to  the  three  Persons  of  the  Trinity.  LI.  2110-2177. 


24  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH   POEM. 

Nearly  all  the  complete  copies  of  the  Eruetavit  (mss.  A,  I,  N,  E, 
C,  D,  F,  G)  end  with  this  added  poem,  which  follows  the  address 
to  the  patroness  without  any  apparent  separation.  It  is  lacking  only 
in  MS.  H  and  in  the  incomplete  mss.  K,  J,  L  and  M.  The  question 
arises  :  Is  it  authentic ;  that  is,  did  the  author  include  it  in  his 
composition  ? 

Unfavorable  to  its  authenticity  are  three  circumstances,  which, 
however,  admit  of  explanation  : 

First,  line  2080,  ci  androit  faut  Eruetavit,  may  indicate,  not  the 
end  of  the  entire  composition,  but  only  the  end  of  its  main  portion, 
the  poet's  alleged  translation  of  David's  psalm.  For  his  sense  of 
proportion  leads  him  to  end,  as  he  had  begun,  with  a  brief  statement, 
11.  2071-2100,  of  the  purpose  of  his  composition  and  with  an  address 
to  his  patroness.  Last  of  all  he  puts  wh^t  is  "  in  place  of  the 
Gloria.'" 

Second,  the  last  and  essential  part  of  this  addition,  11.  2131-2168, 
the  prayer  or  doxology  without  the  narrative  transition,  is  found 
attached  to  another  poem,  a  metrical  version  of  Solomon's  Song.^ 
Of  that  composition,  written  probably  between  1176  and  1181,  only* 
one  copy  exists,  dating  from  the  thirteenth  century.  The  added  poem 
in  question  seems  less  likely  to  have  originated  there  than  here  at  the 
close  of  the  Eruetavit.  For,  altho  this  addition  is  in  the  same  meter 
as  the  body  of  the  poem,. it  is  there  preceded  by  another  addition  in 
different  meter,  a  version  of  the  Stabat  Mater. 

Third,  the  first  line,  Une  douce  proiere  i  a,  seems  at  first  a 
disclaimer  of  authorship.  But  the  impersonal  turn  would  appear 
demanded  by  the  riming  word  Gloria  in  the  next  line. 

Favorable  to  its  authenticity  are  the  following  circumstances, 
which  appear  weightier,  altho  not  perhaps  decisive. 

The  triple  division  of  the  added  poem  (the  divine  names  serving 
as  headings)  would  seem  an  attempt  to  conform  this  last  part  to  the 
main  poem. 

Further,  this  addition  is  found  in  all  complete  copies  of  the 
Eruetavit  except  one,  as  stated  above ;  in  other  words,  in  two  of  the 

'See  Bonnard's  Traductiona  de  la  Bible  en  versfrangais  au  Moyen  Age,  152-162. 


THE  ERUGTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 


25 


three  classes  into  which,  as  Professor  T.  A.  Jenkins  informs  me,  the 
MSS.  fall.  Besides,  the  language  shows  general  agreement  with  that 
of  the  main  poem. 

Finally,  the  poet's  words,  11.  2101-2102, 

Une  douce  proiere  i  a 
Qui  est  an  leu  de  Gloria, 

show  that  it  is  used  with  a  purpose :  it  is  to  serve  as  the  Gloria 
after  the  psalm.  The  strength  of  his  purpose  appears  in  the 
miraculous  incident  serving  as  transition,^  and  renders  him  insensible 
even  to  the  anachronism  of  ascribing  to  the  prophet  Isaiah  a  prayer 
that  is  in  the  Christian  form. 

I  suggest  therefore  that  not  only  the  transition  passage,  11.  2101- 
2130  (the  story  of  Isaiah's  thirst  miraculously  quenched  and  the 
recommendation  of  the  prayer  as  efficacious),  but  also  the  prayer  or 
doxology  that  follows,  11.  2131-2168,  should  be  considered  at  least 
as  included  by  compilation  or  adaptation  in  our  poet's  production, 
perhaps  even  as  original  with  him.^ 


^  The  reader  may  judge  of  this  by  seeing  the  passage  itself,  11.  2101-2120,  which  is 
here  quoted : 


Une  douce  proiere  i  a 

Qui  est  en  leu  de  Gloria, 

Si  est  estraite  d'Ysaye, 

Qui  apela  Deu  en  aie 

Quant  li  crues  rois  Manasses 

Qui  par  linage  estoit  ses  nies 

Le  traist  de  Iherusalera  fors 

Si  le  sola  parmi  le  cors. 

Por  le  tormant  qui  graindre  fust 

La  sie  fist  feire  de  fust. 

En  eel  angoisse  ou  il  estoit, 


Quant  li  soierre  s'arestoit 

Prist  le  prophete  une  granz  sois  ; 

Mes  por  ce  que  li  cuiverz  rois 

Ne  soffri  qu'an  li  donast  boivre, 

Deu  coman9a  a  remantoivre. 

Par  cez  paroles  le  proia 

Et  Daraedes  li  anvoia 

Un  fil  d'iaue  devers  le  ciel, 

Soef  et  douce  come  miel. 

Si  tot  come  il  I'ot  avalee 

Si  en  fu  I'ame  a  Deu  alee. 


This  is  immediately  followed  by  a  recommendation  of  the  prayer,  as  still  efficacious, 
— "  whoever  on  Friday  mornings  says  it  in  Romance  or  in  Latin,  is  never  overtaken 
by  sin," — and  then  begins  the  prayer,  Merci  de  moi,  etc. 

'  In  his  brief  notice  of  the  Madrid  MS. ,  Bulletin  de  la  Societe  des  anciens  Textes 
fran^ais,  1878,  50,  P.  Meyer  quotes  two  passages  of  the  Eructavit,  the  second  of 
which  is  from  this  added  poem. 


26  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FEENCH  POEM. 

In  leaving  this  discussion  of  the  poem's  contents  and  plan  we 
must  admit  that  the  writer  does  not  consistently  adhere  to  his 
purpose.  This  was,  at  the  beginning,  11.  353—364,  to  represent 
David  as  singing  to  the  King  and  Queen  in  turn  nine  verses  each. 

He  had  the  same  Latin  text  of  the  Psalm,  it  seems,  that  the 
printed  copies  of  the  Vulgate  have  coutaiaed  since  1592.  The 
division  into  verses  was  practically  the  same.  The  first  verse,  altho 
expounded  at  length  by  Augustiue  and  other  commentators,  our 
writer  leaves  untouched,  recognizing  probably  that  it  is  merely  a 
title.  From  the  two  halves  of  the  second  verse  he  gets  the  headings 
for  his  introduction,  separating  it  into  two  parts.  Then  by  dividing 
verses  3  and  8  he  is  able  to  command  the  required  number  of  verses 
to  serve  as  headings  for  the  body  of  his  poem.  The  verses  are 
sometimes  distributed  in  phrases  or  clauses.  In  two  cases  more  than 
one  verse  is  used  as  a  heading  We  may  grant  that  he  has  fulfilled 
the  purpose  announced  to  use  De  chascun  .ix.  vers  entiers,  employing 
rather  freely,  with  a  poet's  license  perhaps,  his  terms  and  his  texts. 

But  the  other  part  of  his  plan,  direct  address  by  David,  he  is  far 
from  carrying  out.  He  neglects  it  in  about  half  of  the  poem,  and 
apparently  contents  himself  with  addressing  the  reader.  In  one 
passage  of  transition,  11.  1749-1752,  he  addresses  ma  dame,  the 
patroness.  Probably,  however,  it  is  the  poet's  skill  that  leads  him 
to  avoid  direct  address  in  the  long  passages  about  the  King's  arrows, 
11.  663-868,  and  throne,  11.  869-1154.  Apostrophes  of  such  length 
would  be  difficult  to  manage. 

At  several  points  the  poet  indulges  in  a  digression,  as  my  outline 
shows.  In  other  places,  toward  the  close,  he  introduces  material 
that  seems  irrelevant.  But  he  thus  rounds  out  a  composition  which 
like  many  produced  at  that  period,  is  not  distinguished  for  organic 
unity.  On  the  other  hand  one  omission  on  his  part  must  be  noted. 
He  fails  to  comment  on  one  phrase  of  verse  9,  a  domibus  ehurneis,^ 

*  The  poet's  failure  to  comment  on  this  phrase  indicates,  I  think,  that  he  had  not 
within  reach  Jerome's  exposition  of  Ps.  xliv,  ( wliich  is  also  addressed  to  a  lady). 
Epistola  LXV ad  Principiam.  For  here  the  comment  is  so  in  the  line  of  our  poet's 
quaint  fancy  that  he  would  almost  certainly  have  used  it,  if  it  had  been  known  to  him. 
Jerome  says  : 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OI>D  FRENCH  POEM.  27 

altho  the  heading  contains  it  in  all  the  complete  copies  and  most 
of  the  commentators  explain  it.  In  1.  1578  an  anachronism  is 
committed.  Here  David  is  made  to  quote  Jeremiah,  mentioning  him 
by  name,  contrary  to  the  poet's  custom. 

III.   The  Materials  of  the  Poem. 

This  part  of  my  study  was  begun  with  the  theory  that  the 
Eructavit  is  a  translation  of  some  extended  comment  on  Psalm  xliv  ; 
that  the  poet's  task  was,  as  he  says,  11.  15-20,  139-144,  to  turn 
Latin  into  Romance  verse.  Search  was  therefore  made  for  an 
original  among  the  earlier  commentators. 

The  most  important  expositions  of  Psalm  xliv,  written  before 
our  poet's  time,  are  those  of  Augustine,  Jerome,  Cassiodorus,  the 
Venerable  Bede,  Haymo  of  Halberstadt,  Radbertus  Paschasius, 
Bruno  of  Wiirzburg,  Bruno  of  Koln  or  perhaps  of  Monte  Cassino, 
and  Peter  Lombard.  These  and  many  other  authors  of  devout 
works  were  consulted  by  me,  but  nothing  like  systematic  translation 
or  paraphrase  was  found  to  have  been  made  from  them.  Passages 
here  and  there  were  identified,  but  to  no  great  extent. 

The  first  long  passage  of  the  Eructavit  that  I  was  able  with 
confidence  to  refer  to  an  earlier  writer  was  tliat  on  the  King's  arrows, 
11.  663-868  ;  and  this  not  to  any  of  the  comments  on  Psalm  xliv, 
but  to  Gregory  the  Great's  Moralia  in  Job,  xix  and  xxxiv.  For 
nowhere  does  this  writer  offer  a  general  exposition  of  the  psalm  in 
question.  It  became  plain  on  further  search  that  Gregory,  as  usual 
modifying  and  extending  the  ideas  of  Augustine,  must  be  called  our 
poet's  master  rather  than  any  other  single  writer.  Yet  there  is  no 
continuity  of  imitation,  no  systematic  borrowing  even  here. 

I  abandoned  therefore  the  theory  entertained  at  the  start,  becoming 
convinced  that  the  poet's  claim,  in  11.  15-20,  139-144,  to  be  a  mere 
translator  into  verse   is  a  matter  of  literary  convention,  intended 


Laetificabis  eum  de  domibus  cburneis  sive  lit  melius  in  Hebraico  scribitur,  de  templo 
dentium ;  et  laudes  Domino  canes,  totaque  saeculo  mortua,  angelorum  imitaberis  chores. 


28  THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

probably  to  render  his  composition  more  acceptable  and  authoritative.^ 
He  is  certainly  a  translator  in  many  passages,  and  from  the  Latin 
too.  But  his  expressions  about  putting  into  Romance  the  poem 
written  by  David  and  used  by  the  Church  on  Christmas  morning 
mean  merely  that  his  production  is  based  on  Psalm  xliv  of  the 
Vulgate.  It  furnishes  him  a  general  theme  and  a  series  of  texts, 
which  he  treats  according  to  the  fanciful,  allegorical  style  of  his 
patristic  masters  and  of  his  own  time. 

The  author  of  the  Eructavit  draws  from  many  sources,  some  of 
which  I  cannot  identify.  Probably  much  of  his  material  is  the 
commonplace  of  medieval  clerical  thought.  Some  of  it  is  often 
found  in  several  writers,  who  may  have  been  accessible.  We  may 
safely  assume  that  there  was  some  growth  in  the  library  of  St. 
Pierre-le-Vif  in  the  fifty  years  that  followed  1123.  We  may  assume 
also  that  occasionally  in  the  scriptorium  or  cloister,  the  memory  of  a 
fellow-monk  furnished  a  quotation  or  a  thought  which  the  poet  was 
able  to  use  without  consulting  any  book. 

His  manner  of  handling  materials  borrowed  from  others  is  by  no 
means  servile.  Whether  he  deals  with  generally  current  thought  or 
something  that  clerks  only  know,  the  poet  puts  into  it  something  of 
his  own.  He  at  least  chooses,  arranges  or  expands  in  his  own  way. 
Perhaps  his  use,  11.  140,  146  and  359,  of  the  words  afaitier  and 
agencier,  indicates  sufficiently  his  method.^ 

*  Such  a  claim  is  very  commonly  made  by  Old  French  poets.  For  examples  see 
Volker  ( Zeihehrijt  f.  rom.  Philologie,  x,  485  ff. )  on  the  word  Romance. 

Compare  the  words  of  Chretien  de  Troyes  at  the  beginning  of  Guillaume  d' Angleterre 
and,  more  particularly,  of  Le  chevalier  de  la  charette.  In  the  latter  case,  after  crediting 
Marie  of  Champagne  with  la  matiere  et  le  sans,  he  promises,  it  would  seem,  to  carefully 
refrain  from  putting  into  his  task  anything  but  labor  and  thought  : 

Et  il  s'antremet 
De  panser  si  que  rien  n'i  met 
Fors  sa  painne  et  s'antancion. 

So  too  the  rather  wide  liberty  exercised  as  translator  by  Petrarch,  and  defended  by 
him  upon  the  authority  of  Horace,  appears  in  his  Latin  version  of  Boccaccio's 
Griselda.     See  Robinson  and  Rolfe's  Petrarch,  pp.  191-193. 

"On  the  meaning  of  afaitier  as  used  of  translation  into  verse,  see  the  beginning  of 
Pierre's  Bestiaire,  which  he  prepares  "sans  rime  tot  selonc  le  latin  que  Fisiologes  uns 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FEENCH  POEM. 


29 


For  instance,  the  idea  of  David  as  joculator  Dei,  one  naturally 
arising  from  that  of  the  psalm  as  a  marriage-hymn^  is  expressed 
more  fully  by  Haymo  of  Halberstadt  and  by  Peter  Lombard  than 
by  other  expositors.  I  quote  from  both,  putting  in  parallel  column 
some  extracts  from  the  introduction  of  the  poem  to  show  that  the 
poet  expresses  the  same  thought  and  also  how  he  handles  it : 

Peter  Lombard,  Migne,  cxci,  437.     Eruetavit,  extracts  from  11.  80-306. 


Propheta     ergo,     quasi      ad     has 
nuptias  intromitti  desiderans,  ut  sibi 
aperiatur,   se  velle  sponso  cantare, 
ait  : 
Eruetavit  cor  meum,  etc. 

Haymo,  Migne,  cxvi,  347. 

In  duobus  primis  versiculis  utitur 
sirailitudine  joculatoris,  intrare  vo- 
lentis,  ad  nuptias,  et  captantis 
benevolentiam  janitoris,  praevidens 
Christi  et  ecclesiae  nuptias,  volens 
cantare  de  eis,  et  quasi  intromitti, 
parat  sibi  auditores,  dicens  se  fecisse 
cautilenam  de  nuptiis,  et  velle  can- 
tare  regri. 


Uns  des  prophetes  fu  David  .  . 
Si  poroffri  il  son  servise 
As  noces  De  et  saiute  eglise  .  . 
Mes  la  porte  trova  il  close  .  .  . 
Por  ce  que  n'osa  apeler, 
Si  coman9a  a  vieler  : 
A  la  corde  tocbe  I'aryon, 
S'ancomance  ceste  chan9on  : 
Eruetavit  cor  meum  .... 
Ancore  parole  a  son  huissier, 
Si  le  comance  a  losangier  : 
' '  Biau  sire,  .  i.  po  me  conforte 
Por  De  antrueve  moi  la  porte  . 
Se  je  leanz  antrez  estoie, 
Avec  les  moz  vieleroie. 
Juglerre  sui,  sages  et  duiz  ; 
Se  le  roi  plaisoit  mes  deduiz, 
Ce  sai  je  bien  que  les  sod^es 
Me  seroient  mout  granz  donees  . 
Ma  clian9on  vuel  dire  le  roi. ' ' 


In  either  of  these  Latin  quotations,  especially  in  the  longer  one, 
altho  the  shorter  is  the  more  dramatic,  we  see  the  figure  that  shapes 


des  bons  clers  d' Athenes  traita,"  at  his  patron's  wish,  "porce  que  rime  se  velt  afaitier 
de  mos  concueillis  hors  de  vdrit^."  Mann's  Der  Bestiaire  divin  des  Guillaume  le 
Clerc,  Franzosische  Studien,  VI,  304. 

'  The  term  epithalammm  is  applied  to  Psalm  xliv  by  Augustine,  Cassiodorus,  Bede, 
Haymo,  Eadbertus  Paschasius  and  Peter  Lombard  in  their  comments.  The  expres- 
sion, changon  de  ehambre,  used  in  1.  2075  (see  below)  seems  intended  as  a  translation. 
I  have  found  it  nowhere  else. 


30.  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

even  in  minute  details  the  animated  introduction  of  the  poem,  11.  21— 
204,  205-366.  The  extracts,  in  the  arrangement  of  which  I  have 
taken  some  liberty  with  the  order,  show  the  spirit  and  form  of  this 
introduction  fairly  well.  Here  as  elsewhere,  the  poet  uses  borrowed 
material  with  freedom :  much  of  it  he  puts  into  a  dialog ;  he  uses  the 
device  of  a  vision ;  he  makes  David  the  prophet  and  singer  of  the 
marriage.  In  the  latter  point,  which  is  insisted  on  from  beginning 
to  end  of  the  Eruetavit,^  he  is  like  Radbertus  Paschasius.^ 

It  may  be  said  that  the  poet's  method  of  collecting  material  is 
eclectic,— 17  prend  son  bien  oii  il  le  trouve, — also  that  he  is  original 
rather  than  servile  in  employing  it.  Further,  he  seldom  notifies  the 
reader  when  the  thought  is  borrowed  and  almost  never  gives  credit  by 
name.  The  few  exceptions  to  this  rule  have  to  do  with  the  Bible, 
and  will  be  treated  farther  on.  The  poet's  own  personality  is  kept 
out  of  sight :  he  is  anonymous,  almost  impersonal.  He  makes  his 
authorities  share  in  the  same  studied  reserve.  Let  us  grant,  however, 
that,  altho  his  influence  might  be  increased  by  the  great  names  which 
complete  frankness  would  have  led  him  to  mention,  his  art  has  done 
well  to  keep  them  back.  They  are  indeed  too  numerous  to  mention. 
His  pages  would  bristle  with  names ;  for  his  poem,  like  the  Roman 
de  la  Mose,^  draws  from  many  different  writers. 

Let  me  now  show  where  the  poet  appears  indebted  to  the  great 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  Augustine  and  Gregory  the  Great.     Both 

^  At  the  very  close,  11.  2071-2076,  just  before  the  final  address  to  the  patroness,  the 
poet  takes  leave  of  his  work : 

Ci  androit  faiit  Eructavit,  Le  fondemant  de  nostre  foi. 

Li  biaus  saumes  le  roi  David,  Chan9on  de  chambre  I'apela, 

Ou  Damedes  nos  mostre  au  doi  Einsi  com  Deus  11  revela. 

As  early  in  the  poem  as  1.  82,  David  is  introduced  as  the  divinely  inspired  author 
of  what  our  poet  presents  in  translation  : 

Ceste  chanfon  que  j'ai  escrite 
Trova  il  par  saint  esperite. 
^Migne,  cxx,  993. 

^See  Langlois,  Les  sources  du  Roman  de  la  Rose.  His  conclusions  appear  to  be 
accepted  {Romania,  xxr,  435),  altho  on  pp.  21,  23  he  seems  in  error  concerning  the 
husband  of  Marie  of  Champagne. 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 


31 


may  be  called  his  masters,  tho  the  latter  probably  receives  oftener 
the  tribute  of  imitatiou. 

In  the  first  passage  to  be  indicated  Augustine  alone  must  have  the 
credit  of  having  attracted  the  poet.  It  is  the  fine  outburst  about  the 
Lord  Beautiful,  from  Augustine's  Enarratio  in  Ps.  xl.iv,  parag.  3, 
B.  C.  This  eloquent  passage  is  well  handled  in  11.  393-482.  Some 
lines  and  phrases  of  the  poem  set  side  by  side  with  the  Latin  will 
make  plain  the  fact  that  Augustine's  thought  is  used  and  with 
skill : 


Augustine,  Enar.  in  Ps.  xliv,  3.      Extracts  from  11.  39B-4S2,  Erudavit. 


Nobis  ergo  jam  credentibus,  ubique 
sponsus  pulcher  occurrat.  Pulclier 
Deus,  Verbum  apud  Deum  :  pulcher 
in  utero  virginis,  ubi  non  amisit 
divinitatera,  et  sumpsit  humauita- 
teni  :  pulcher  natus  iufans  Verbum  ; 
et  cum  esset  infans,  cum  sugeret, 
cum  manibus  portaretur,  coeli 
locuti  sunt,  Angeli  laudes  dixerunt, 
Magos  Stella  direxit,  adoratus  est 
in  praesepi,  cibaria  mansuetorum. 
Pulcher  ergo  in  coelo,  pulcher  in 
terra  .  .  .  pulcher  in  miraculis, 
pulcher  in  flagellis  ;  pulcher  invi- 
tans  ad  vitam,  pulcher  non  curans 
mortem  :  pulcher  deponens  animam, 
pulcher  recipiens  ;  pulcher  in  ligno, 
pulcher  in  sepulcro,  pulcher  in 
coelo. 


Et  bele  iert  la  senefiance  .  .  . 
Quant  li  ange  se  mosterront .  .  . 
Biaus  seroiz  et  sans  nul  teche 
Lorsque  vos  gerroiz  an  la  creche, 
Quant  la  grant  biaute  ou  vos  estes 
Aparcevront  les  mues  bestes. 
Vostre  aparicions  iert  bele, 
Que  I'estoile  vendra  novele  .  .  . 
Que  les  .iii.  rois  aconduira  .  .  . 
Quant  la  virge  relevera 
Qui  au  tanple  vos  ofFerra, 
Bele  iert  cele  processions  .  .  . 
Sera  vostre  biautez  mout  granz 
Quant  vos  feroiz  les  morz  revivre  .  . 
La  voire  croiz  iert  li  autex 
Ou  recevra  li  pere  Dex 
De  vostre  bel  cors  I'ofTerande  .  .  . 
Apres  la  resurrection 
Seroiz  biaus  a  1' ascension  .  .  . 


In  the  lines  upon  the  eagle  as  the  symbol  of  the  Evangelist  John, 
a  thought  occurs  that  Augustine  expresses  completely  in  the 
beginning  of  Tractatus  xxxvi.  In  Evangelium  Joannls,  and  partially 
in  the  first  sentence  of  Tractatus  xx  of  the  same  work.  The  poet 
reproduces  the  fuller  form,  but  changes  the  figure : 


32 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM. 


.  Augustine,  Tract,  xxxvi, 
In  Ev.  Joan.   • 

In  quatuor  evangeliis  ,  .  .  Joannes 
apostolus,  non  immerito  secundum 
intelligentiam  spiritualem  aquilae 
comparatus,  altius  multoque  subli- 
mius  aliis  tribus  erexit  praedication- 
em  suam  .  .  .  et  de  Domini  divini- 
tate,  quomodo  nullus  alius,  est 
locutus.  Hoc  ructabat  quod  biberat. 
Non  enim  sine  causa  de  illo  in  isto 
Evangelio  narratur,  quia  et  in 
convivio  super  pectus  Domini 
discumbebat.  De  illo  ergo  pectore 
in  secreto  bibebat  :  sed  quod  in 
secreto  bibit,  in  manifesto  eructa- 
vit  .  .  . 


Eructavit,  11.  1047-1060. 

Sainz  Jehanz,  qui  ce  nos  conta, 
Fu  I'aigle  qui  si  haut  monta, 
Si  ot  li  rois  haut  consoilier. 
Mout  li  presta  riche  oroilier 
A  la  Ceine  ou  il  recina 
Quant  sor  son  piz  son  chief  clina. 
Mout  ot  cele  ore  bon  repos, 
Que  toz  li  monz  estoit  enclos 
An  eel  oroilier  qu'il  avoit : 
C'est  el  piz  De  qui  tot  savoit. 
Bien  dut  le  soir  dormir  soef 
Quant  a  son  chavet  ot  la  clef 
Qui  la  gloire  Deu  li  ovri 
Et  son  tresor  li  descovri. 


We  come  now  to  portions  of  the  poem  that  show  indebtedness  to 
both  Augustine  and  Gregory. 

A  long  and  striking  passage  of  the  Eructavit  is  a  highly  allegorical 
explanation  of  the  King's  bow  and  arrows,  11.  663-868.  Here  is 
set  forth  and  dwelt  upon  a  thought  that  was  widely  current  among 
medieval  commentators.^  Augustine  expresses  a  part  of  it  in  his 
Enarratio  in  Ps.  VII,  parag.  14.  His  sentences  appear  to  be  in  the 
poet's  mind  in  11.  673,  703,  704,  717-719  and  many  more.  We 
may  judge  by  putting  the  two  side  by  side  : 


Arcum  ergo  istuni,  Scripturas  sanc- 
tas  libenter  acceperim,  ubi  fortitu- 
dine  Novi  Testamenti,  quasi  nervo 
quodam,    duritia  Veteris    flexa    et 


Li  fuz  de  I'arc  fu  la  viez  lois 
La  sainte  evangile  qu'il  dist, 
Ce  fu  la  corde  qu'il  i  mist.  .  . 
Justise  vers  pitie  ploia, 


edomita  est.    Hinc  tanquam  sagittae     Quarriaus  et  darz  nos  anvoia 


^  The  following  writers  employ  the  same  figure  for  substantially  the  same  thought : 
Jerome,  Ep.  LXV  ad  Frineipiam  ;  (^assiodorus,  Bruno  oi  Koln  or  Monte  Cassino, 
Haymo  of  Halberstadt,  and  Bruno  of  Wurzburg  on  Ps.  vii ;  Peter  Lombard  on  Ps. 

XLIV. 


THE  EBUGTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  33 

emittuntur    Apostoli,     vel     divina     Li  apostre  qui  Deu  oirent 
praeconia  jaculantur.  Et  si  diciple  qui  le  virent 

Sont  les  saietes  qu'il  anvoie. 

A  supplement,  as  it  were,  to  the  above  occurs  in  Augustine's 
Sermo  298,  parag.  2.  It  ends  as  quoted  below,  and  may  be  compared 
with  11.  726-733  of  the  poem  : 

Quibus   sagittis   factum    est    quod     Mout  est  sees  et  douz  cist  fers 
sequitur,     Populi    sub    te    cadent.     Qui  si  perce  le  cuer  del  vantre 
Bona  sunt  talia  vulnera.     Vulnus     Que  nus  ne  set  quant  il  i  antra, 
amoris  salubre  est.  Buer  est  nez  cui  cil  fers  ataint : 

C'est  li  cos  don  nus  ne  se  plaint. 

Gregory  the  Great,  as  already  stated,  nowhere  expounds  Ps.  XLiv 
as  a  whole.  In  various  passages,  however,  of  his  expository  works 
and  his  homilies  he  comments  upon  the  King's  bow  and  arrows  as  the 
Scriptures  applied  in  preaching.  He  differs  from  Augustine,  whose 
authority  had  no  doubt  made  the  figure  well  known,  in  dwelling  upon 
it  at  greater  length  and  in  not  expressly  saying,  but  only  implying 
that  the  arrows  signify  the  Apostles  and  the  preachers  of  the 
Gospel  as  well  as  their  messages.  He  agrees  with  Augustine  in  the 
allegory  of  the  bow  and  the  cord  :  the  severity  of  the  Old  Testament 
bent  and  mitigated  by  the  grace  of  the  New.  The  passage  is  too 
long  to  quote.  ^ 

As  stated  above,  we  may  safely  conclude  that  the  book  so  briefly 
mentioned  by  Clarius  {Hinc  sequitur  Paterius  in  VIII  volumine)  was 
the  well  known  Liher  Testimoniorum  of  Gregory's  secretary,  Paterius ; 
and  that  it  served  our  poet,  according  to  the  long  prevalent  custom, 
as  a  ready  manual  of  reference  for  Gregory's  comments  on  the  books 
of  the  Bible  in  order. 

With  the  aid  of  Paterius  the  poet  probably  found  the  alleged 
passage  ^  from  Gregory's  Homil.  IX  in  Ezechielem.    Or  Paterius  may 

'  It  is  found  in  the  Moralia  in  Job,  xix.     See  Migne,  Lxxvi,  133,  134. 

*  The  term  alleged  is  here  used  because,  as  the  editor  acknowledges  in  a  foot-note 
(Migne,  lxxix,  866),  the  passage  cannot  be  identified  in  Migne's  text  of  the  horailj 
itself  which  Paterius  claims  to  quote  from. 


34  THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

have  furnished  him  almost  the  same  material  in  comments  upon  Ps. 
VII,  13;  Lxxvi,  19,  found  in  the  Moralia  in  Job,  xix,  and  referred 
to  above.  In  the  latter  case  Paterius  has  not  quoted  the  passage  in 
full.  In  both  cases  the  arrows  are  interpreted  as  representing,  not 
the  preachers,  but  their  messages. 

Two  other  comments,  enforced  by  this  figure  and  not  found  in 
Paterius,  are  those  of  Moralia  in  Job,  vii  and  xxxiv.^  The  former, 
quoting  Is.  lxvi,  19  {cid  gentes  in  mare,  in  Africam,  et  in  Lydiam 
.  .  .  in  Italiam,  in  Graeciam)  implies  the  going  forth  of  messengers 
as  well  as  their  words.  It  may  have  prompted  in  the  poet's  mind 
the  idea  of  the  apostolic  "  spheres  of  influence,"  which  he  carries  out 
with  so  much  detail,  11.  750-826,  following  in  general  the  tradition 
recorded  by  Isidore,  De  ortu  et  obitu  patrum,  133. 

The  poet  shows  some  originality  and  a  medieval  thoroughness  in 
allegorizing,  in  explaining  the  feather  on  the  arrow,  which  neither  of 
his  masters  had  mentioned.     The  following  are  the  lines,  720-722  : 

Et  la  pane  qui  les  convoie, 
Sainz  Espei'ites  qui  les  maine, 
Qui  lor  done  force  et  alaine. 

Upon  verse  7  of  the  Psalm,  that  is  upon  the  King's  throne  and 
scepter,  the  poet  gives  us  nearly  three  hundred  lines.  Most  of  this 
long  passage  deals  with  the  four  great  prophets,  each  attended  by  a 
beast  at  one  of  the  four  feet  of  the  throne.  The  beasts  symbolize  the 
Evangelists.  Here  Gregory  furnishes  much  material,  a  little  of 
which  suftices  the  poet.  The  beasts  or  living  forms  are  not  assigned 
according  to  Augustine,  In  Joannis  Evangelium,  Tractatus  xxxvi, 
5,^  the  lion  for  Matthew  and  the  man's  likeness  for  Mark ;  but 
according  to  Gregory's  Fourth  Homily  on  Ezekiel :  the  man's 
likeness  for  Matthew,  the  lion  for  Mark,  the  ox  for  Luke  and  for 
John  the  eagle, — the  symbols  used  by  Jerome  also,  Expositio  Quaiuor 
Evangetiorum,  Prologus. 

*  See  Migne,  lxxv,  769  and  lxxvi,  728. 

^  Leonera  pro  rege  positum  .  .  .  propter  potentiam  .  .  .  Haec  persona  tributa  est 
Matthaeo.  Lucas  autem  .  .  .  vitulo  deputatus  est  .  .  .  Marco  homo  .  .  .  assignatus 
est.     Restat  aquila  :  ipse  est  Joannes. 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM. 


35 


Here  the  poet  must  have  looked  beyond  Paterius/  for  the  latter 
repeats  only  a  part  of  Gregory's  comment  on  Ez.  i.  The  whole  is 
found  in  Moralia  in  Job,  xxxi,^  and  shows  that  Paterius  omits  the 
only  name  used  by  Gregory,  that  of  John.  At  the  beginning  of 
Gregory's  Fourth  Homily  on  Ezekiel^  occurs  a  more  detailed 
exposition  of  Ez.  i,  10,  with  assignment  by  name  of  the  four 
Evangelists.^  The  few  lines  which  indicate  the  characteristic  of  each 
Gospel  and  suggest  the  symbolic  animal  for  each  writer  seem  to  serve 
the  poet  as  material  for  his  outline  of  the  long  passage,  11.  875-1160. 
From  the  following  extracts  it  may  be  clearly  seen  that  he  mentions 
the  Evangelists  in  the  order  indicated  by  Gregory's  descriptive 
phrases  and  with  the  same  thought  in  each  case,  both  in  regard  to  the 
writers  of  the  Gospels  and  in  regard  to  the  acts  of  the  Savior's  life 
therein  related  : 


Gregory,  Motalia  in  Job,  xxxi. 

Et  quamvis  singula  ad  unumquem- 
que  evangelistam  conveniaut,  (dum 
alius  humanae  nativitatis  ordinem  ; 
alius  per  mundi  sacrificii  mactatio- 
nem,  quasi  vituli  mortem  ;  alius 
potestatis  fortitudinem,  quasi  leonis 
clamorera  iusinuat ;  alius  nativita- 
tem  verbi  intuens,  quasi  ortum 
solera  aquila  aspectat),  possunt 
tamen  haec  quatuor  animalia  ipsura 
suum  caput  cujus  sunt  membra 
signare.  Ipse  namque  homo  est, 
quia    naturam     nostrara    veraciter 


Erudavit,  extracts  from  11. 
902-1080. 

Sainz  Mathieus  fu  sor  Isaie, 
Si  ot  d'ome  vis  et  figure  : 
Por  ce  que  I'umaine  nature 
Que  li  rois  prist  an  la  pucele  .  .  . 
De  1' autre  part .  .  . 
Ot  une  samblance  de  tor  : 
Sainz  Luques  sor  Saint  Jeremie  .  . 
Le  verai  sacrefiement, 
Que  Damedes  li  rois  feroit. 
Sainz  Mars  ot  samblant  de  lioncel 
Si  estoit  sor  Saint  Daniel. 
An  la  vangile  le  me'ist  .  .  . 
N'i  a  celui  qui  miauz  vos  die 


^  Migne,  lxxix,  983.  '^  Migne,  lxxvi,  625. 

^Migne,  lxxvi,  814-816. 

*Quod  enim  quatuor  haec  pennata  animalia  sanctos  quatuor  Evangelistas  designent, 
ipsa  unius  cujusque  libri  evangelici  exordia  testantur.  Nam  quia  ab  humana  genera- 
tione  coepit,  jure  per  hominem  Matthaeus  ;  quia  per  clamorem  in  deserto,  recte 
designatur  per  leonem  Marcus  ;  quia  a  sacrificio  exorsus  est,  bene  per  vitulum  Lucas  j 
quia  vero  a  divinitate  Verbi  coepit,  digne  per  aquilam  significatur  Joannes,  etc. 


36  THE  ERUOTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

suscepit ;  et  vitulus,  quia  pro  nobis  Commant  vint  Deus  de  mort  a  vie. 

patienter    occubuit  ;    et    leo,     quia  Une  grant  aigle  qui  haut  vole, 

divinitatis    fortitudinem     susceptae  Ce  fu  mes  sire  Sainz  Jehanz  .  .  . 

mortis  vinculum  rupit  ;  et  ad  extre-  Nos  raostre  que  Ezechiel 

mum  aquila,  quia  ad  eoelum  de  quo  Et  Sainz  Jehanz  ensamble  sont  ,  .  . 

venerat,  rediit.     Homo  ergo  nascen-  Ce  sont  li  dui  qui  plus  haut  volent, 

do,  vitulus  moriendo,  leo  resurgendo,  Qui  plus  parfondemant  parolent. 
aquila  ad  coelos  ascendendo. 

The  parallel  is  less  plain  in  the  case  of  the  fourth  Evangelist. 
But  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  ascension  of  Christ  has  already 
been  celebrated  by  the  poet,  11.  469-488,  in  a  passage  that  is  yet  to 
be  treated  here. 

Before  leaving  this  long  and  characteristic  presentation  of  the 
King's  throne,  moulded  by  Gregory's  idea  of  the  symbolic  beasts, 
let  us  note  a  change  in  the  poet's  conception.  At  first,  11.  880-888, 
he  emphasizes  the  firmness  of  the  four  supports : 

Li  trones  sist  sor  ,iiii.  piez,  Se  ciaus  et  terre  et  mers  tramblast. 

Si  fu  si  fers  et  atachiez  Ja  li  sieges  ne  se  crollast, 

Que  riens  ne  le  peiist  movoir  Si  fermemant  estoit  assis 

Por  painne  ne  por  estovoir.  Au  plus  bel  leu  de  paradis. 

But  with  the  mention,  11.  883-888,  of  the  "  four  barons  of  great 
merit,"  that  is,  the  prophets,  the  King  is  represented  as  borne  about 
by  them  on  his  throne  : 

Si  anbraga  chascuns  .i.  pie. 
Cil  portent  le  roi  et  sostienent, 
Avee  lui  vont  partot  et  vieuent. 

Near  the  close  of  the  passage,  11.  1080-1116,  the  prophets  and 
evangelists  bear  about  the  King  for  his  diversion  and  also  to 
announce  him  to  mankind  in  all  ages.  Here  a  further  change  is  to 
be  noted :  the  evangelists  are  no  longer  merely  represented  by  the 
symbolical  beasts,  but  they  are  present  and  help  the  prophets  in 
bearing  the  King,  11.  1091-1094  : 


THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  37 

Cil  .iiii.  et  .iiii.  ce  sont  .viii.  ;  Le  roi  desduient  et  deportent, 

Mout  bel  servise  li  font  tuit :  De  siegle  en  siegle  le  comportent.^ 

The  longer  connected  passages  have  been  referred  to  their  most 
probable  sources.  The  credit  is  divided  between  the  two  great 
Fathers  of  the  Church,  Augustine  and  Gregory  the  Great.  In  most 
instances  we  note  that  the  ideas  first  uttered  by  the  former  were 
afterwards  given  by  the  latter  the  form  and  scope  in  which  they 
became  generally  current.  This  is  true  of  the  two  important 
passages  that  I  shall  discuss  next. 

The  digression  on  pride,  11.  1695-1748,  is  based  on  Eccli.  x,  15, 
Initium  omnis  peccati  est  superbia.  Augustine  {In  Epistolam  Joannis, 
Tractatus  vii,  2  ;  viii,  6,  9  ;  /w  Joannis  Evangelium,  Tractatus  xxv, 
15,  16,  and  elsewhere)  urges  the  lesson.  Quemcumque  enim  diabolus 
superbum  fecerit,  vincit,  he  says,  and  Caput  omnium  morborum 
superbia  est, — quia  caput  omnium  peccatorum  superbia.  But  Gregory 
(HomiL  XXXIV  in  Evang.  and  Moral,  xxxiv)  enlarges  upon  the 
same  text :  he  expounds'  and  expands  it  with  the  details  which  the 
poet  uses  to  a  considerable  extent.  The  latter's  enumeration  of  sins 
is  not  so  complete  as  that  of  Gregory,  yet  he  says  : 

D'orguel  vienent   maint  mauvais  Et  raaint  pechie  que  nuls  ne  cuide. 

vice,  S' autre  pechiez  d'orguel  ne  vient, 

Larrecin,  murtre  et  avarice,  C'est  li  orguiauz  qui  le  sostient. 
Et  trahisons  et  homecide 

He  seems  to  add  a  touch  of  his  own,  probably  a  lurid  reminiscence 
of  some  contemporary  liturgical  drama,  in  the  concluding  lines, 
1738-1741,  of  the  digression  on  pride  : 

Li  orguilleus,  tuit  eslaissie,  Et  li  deable  apr^s  bruiant, 

S'an  torneront  aval  fuiaut,  Tuit  livre  an  peinne  vantoire. 

The  poet's  teaching  about  the  lost  angels,  11.  1793-1830,  who  fell 
by  pride  and  whose  loss  is  repaired  by  elect  men,  believing  and 

^The  poet's  own  experience  may  be  serving  him  here  :  he  is  employing  perhaps  a 
reminiscence  of  the  Pope  upon  the  sedia  gestatoria,  having  seen  Alexander  III  thus 
borne  in  state  while  sojourning  at  Sens. 


88  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

humble, — this  also  appears  in  Augustine  {Enchiridion,  xxix),  but 
receives  in  Gregory  the  form  which  the  poem  reflects.  The  spurious 
comment  of  Gregory  on  I  Kings  vii :  13,  14^  speaks  of  the  fallen 
angels  as  an  order.  This  expression,  taken  with  his  well  known 
teaching  of  the  ninefold  organization  of  the  angels,  aifords  the  poet 
ground  for  his  assertion,  which  he  bases  on  scripture,  that  there  were 
ten  orders  in  the  beginning.  His  further  assertion,  that  nine  angels, 
one  from  each  order,  shall  minister  to  each  soul  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  just,  I  cannot  refer  to  its  source.  Note  the  following 
comparison  of  parts  of  the  passages  mentioned : 

Eructavit,  extracts  from  II. 
Gregory  on  I  Kings,  vii,  13,  14.  1797-1816. 

Tunc  vero  angelorum  damna  repar-  Nos  savons  par  les  escritures 

antur,     cum    quidquid    de    ordine  Dont  les  paroles  sent  seiires, 

conditorum  spirituum,  eorum  super-  Que  .x.  ordres  d'anges  estoient .  .  . 

bia  sublatum  beatitudini  fuerat,  de  L'une.  .  .  contre  lui  s' enorgoilli .  .  . 

electis  hominibus  adimpletur  ....  Ses  trabucha  jusqu'an  abisme  .  .  . 

Urbes   sublatae   sunt  illae  perditae  Qu'il  sent  or  deable  anpenne. 

multitudines  angelorum.     Sed  tunc  An  leu  de  9aus  qui  lors  cha'irent .  .  . 

redduntur,  quando  de  electa  natura  Sera  li  horn  qui  s'humelie, 

humana  assumitur,   unde  quod  de  Qui  bien  croit  Deu  et  merci  crie  ; 

angelis  periit,  suppleatur.  Qu'an  leu  d'orguel  iert  simpletez 

Et  dou9ors  et  humilitez. 

Where  Augustine  and  Gregory  seem  to  furnish  the  same  material, 
I  regard  the  latter  as  the  poet's  master  for  the  reasons  that  have  been 
advanced  and  for  the  following :  The  general  trend  of  devout 
thought  was  along  paths  trod  by  Gregory  ;  he  was  a  Benedictine  ;  he 
was  held  in  especial  reverence  at  St.  Pierre-le-Vif,  where  his  head 
was  cherished  among  the  relics  until  1628,^  and  his  homilies  appear 
to  have  been  classed  in  our  poet's  time  with  the  holy  books  appointed 
for  reading  in  the  monastery.^ 

^Migne,  lxxix,  213,  214. 

''In  that  year  it  became  the  property  of  the  papal  see.    8ee  Oallia  Christiana,  xu. 

*  The  library  catalog  of  Clarius  thus  describes  the  fourth  volume.     In  iiii,  omeliae 

XL,   beati  Gregorii,    papae,  et  Actus  apostolorum,  et  vii  Epistolae  Canonicae,  et 


THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 


39 


In  two  striking  passages  of  some  extent,  and  in  some  briefer  ones, 
the  poet  shows  indebtedness  to  the  Physiologus,  which  in  that  time 
supplied  so  much  material  to  devout  moralizers.  The  first  evidence 
of  such  indebtedness  is  seen  in  the  thought  and  form  of  the 
conclusion  to  the  poet's  fine  imitation  of  Augustine's  outburst  on  the 
Lord  Beautiful.  In  the  last  part,  11.  471-482,  he  thus  speaks  of  the 
ascension  of  Christ : 


La  amont  an  cele  contr^e 

lert  des  angles  granz  I'assanbl^  ; 

Mout  i  sera  la  joie  granz, 

Et  par  defers  et  par  dedanz. 

Quant  cil  dedanz  avront  cri6  : 

Quis  est  iste  rex  glorie  ? 


Cil  respondront  (mm  gaudio : 

Deus  2}ote7i3  in  prelio  ! 

Ce  iert  a  dire,  tot  sanz  faile, 

Li  rois  revient  de  la  bataile  : 

Ostez  la  bare,  ovrez  la  porte, 

Anfers  est  pris,  la  morz  est  morte  ! 


This  can  be  best  explained  as  a  successful  reproduction  of  the  well 
known  passage  of  the  Physiologus  on  the  Lord's  resurrection  and 
ascension  as  symbolized  by  "  the  first  nature  "  of  the  lion.^ 

Another  passage,  concerning  the  lion  directly,  concludes  that  part 
of  the  poem  which  deals  with  the  Evangelist  Mark  and  the  prophet 
Daniel  as  representing  the  Lord's  resurrection.  It  is  found  in  11. 
997-1016: 


Daniel  par  ceste  avanture 
Et  par  les  moz  de  reseriture 
Tesmoigne  la  surrection  ; 
Et  Saiuz  Mars  au  vis  de  lion 
Li  aiiie  a  porter  le  roi. 
Si  vos  dirai  raison  porquoi  : 

Nos  trovons,  et  voirs  est  provez, 
Que  quant  li  lionciaus  est  nez 
Qu'il  n'a  an  lui  fun  ne  alaine, 
Ne  ne  li  bat  ne  pox  ne  veine  ; 


Ainz  se  gist  morz  jusqu'a  tierz  jor. 
Lors  li  vient  li  peres  antor, 
Et  quant  il  li  a  son  tor  feit, 
Si  s'areste,  si  giete  .i.  brait 
Sor  son  faon  qu'il  trueve  mort. 
For  ce  qu'il  brait  et  crie  fort 
Si  an  avient  une  mervoile  : 
Que  li  faons  de  mort  s'esvoile 
A  la  voiz  qu'il  ot  haute  et  clere, 
Si  reconoist  et  seut  son  pere. 


This  application  of  "the   third    nature"  of  the  lion   has  found 


Apocalypsis.     Haec  omnia  leguntur  a  Pascha  usque  ad  Pentecosten. 
volumine  apostoli  Pauli  Epistolae. 

^Mann's  article  cited  above,  Franzomche  Studien,  vn,  231. 


Et  in  eodem 


40  THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

expression  iu  many  medieval  writers.  A  list  of  parallels  is  given 
by  Goldstaub-Wendriner/  which  list,  however,  does  not  contain  this, 
instance,  nor  that  in  the  Physiologus  of  Hildebertus,^  nor  a  briefer 
one  in  Bartsch's  Chrestomathie  Provengale,  335.  At  the  time  of  our 
poet  the  thought  was  already  a  commonplace,  altho  probably  not  yet 
made  popular  in  the  translations  or  adaptations  of  the  Physiologus 
by  Guillaume,  Gervais  and  Pierre.^  The  Latin  version  of  Origen's 
comment  on  Gen.  xlix,  9,  in  which  reference  is  made  to  the 
Physiologus,  is  probably  the  earliest  of  allusions  to  this  thought  which 
had  so  great  a  fortune.  But  some  materials  appear  to  be  furnished 
to  the  Christian  imagination  by  one  line  of  Vergil  and  by  certain 
credulous  statements  of  Pliny.*  The  Physiologus  was  generally 
current  among  clerks  and,  directly  or  indirectly,  must  have  prompted 
the  passage.  But  it  may  have  been  modified  by  Isidore's  Etym.  xii, 
II,  5,  since  it  states  that  the  whelp,  born  dead,  receives  life,  not  (as 
'  the  Physiologus  says)  at  his  father's  breathing  upon  his  face  but,  as 
Isidore  says,  jpatris  rugitu  et  fremitu  tremef actus.  The  writer  of  the 
Eructavit  is  nowhere  a  close  imitator  of  his  authorities,  yet  he 
reminds  the  reader  of  Philippe  de  Thaiin's  Bestiaire  and  Li  Cumpuz^ 
in  using  this  modification  (which  is  Origen's  as  well  as  Isidore's)  and 
also  in  his  repeated  use  of  the  word  senefiance  in  pointing  the  moral. ^ 
There  are  traces  in  our  poem  of  other  devout  compositions  in  the 
vernacular.'^  In  the  introduction,  11.  62-78,  we  find  an  allusion  to 
the  descent  of  Christ  into  hell,  which  development  of  I  Peter  iii,  19, 
is  probably  due  to  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus.     To  the  same  work  ^ 

^  Ein  Tosco-  Venezianisches  Bestiarius,  24,  25. 

'Migne,  clxxi,  1217. 

^Mann's  article  cited  above,  Franzosische  Studien,  vi,  201,  302,  304. 

*  Georg.  ill,  245  ;  Nat.  Hist.  8,  16,  17. 

*Th.  Wright's  edition  of  the  Bestiaire,  pp.  80,  81  ;  Computus,  11.  1673-1692. 

^Eructavit,  11.  397,  903,  941,  1142,  2017. 

^  Attention  may  be  called  to  a  contemporary  production  marked  by  similar  thought 
and  style,  entitled  JDe  David  li  Prophecie  (ed.  Fuhrken,  ZeitschnJ't  fur  romanischc 
Philoloyie,  xix,  189).  The  only  known  copy  is  dated  1180.  and  stands  side  by  side 
with  the  Emctarit  in  MS.  1560G,  British  Museum.  The  fact  that  the  two  poems  were 
copied  in  succession  by  the  same  scribe  may  have  rendered  more  striking  their  natural 
resemblance. 

*Cf.  Philippe  de  Thaun,  Cmipulus,  30,  1.  SG6,  Th.  Wright's  edition. 


THE  EBUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  41 

may  be  referred  the  allusion  to  Longinus  and  his  spear-thurst,  11. 
1258-1259.  Philippe's  Bestiaire,  11.  299-305,  contains  a  statement, 
upon  Augustine's  authority,  concerning  Saturday  as  the  final  day  of 
reward  for  the  faithful.  The  Eructavit,  11.  1824,  1825,  thus  begins 
to  speak  of  the  resurrection  of  the  just : 

A  eel  haut  jor  de  samedi 

Sera  per  voir  si  com  je  di  .  .  .  . 

In  two  passages  upon  the  incarnation,  11.  87-134,  1619-1660, — 
both  developed  from  Luke  i,  35, — are  reflected  the  arguments  of 
Jerome's  Contra  Helvidium,  of  Ambrose's  hymn,  Veni,  redemptor 
gentium ;  of  Isidore's  De  ortu  et  obitu  patrum ;  of  Radbertus 
Paschasius  in  his  De  Partu  Virginis.  The  latter  author,  it  must  be 
remembered,  wrote  also  the  longest  exposition  of  Psalm  xliv,  as  has 
already  been  stated.  He  was  a  Benedictine,  and  wrote  both 
productions  for  devout  women  living  as  cenobites.  The  controversy 
of  our  poet's  generation  upon  the  person  of  the  Virgin  Mary  must 
have  brought  again  into  notice  his  writings  and  others  of  like  nature. 
A  popular  explanation  of  an  unspeakable  mystery  is  perhaps  to  be 
recognized  in  11.  119-120  : 

.  .  .  Deus  .... 

An  son  precieus  cors  se  mist 
A  la  voiz  que  li  anges  dist.' 

The  poet  shows  familiarity  with  the  current  literary  usages  of  his 
time,  as  I  haye  shown  ;  his  style  shows,  further,  that  he  employs  the 
current  phraseology  of  the  poets.  Even  the  compositions  in  which 
love  is  the  theme  are  not  unknown  to  him,  as  the  following  passage 
proves,  11.  1439-1450,  where  David  exhorts  the  Queen  concerning 
her  wifely  duties  : 

*  The  same  idea  appears  in  the  ancient  hymn  beginning  :  Ave,  virgo,  mater  Christi, 
Qui  per  aurem  concepisti,  Gabriele  nuncio;  and  in  a  very  much  later  and  different 
composition,  Moliere's  L' Ecole  des  Femnies,  v,  4, — Arnolphe's  words  to  Agnes.  For 
the  Latin  quotation  in  this  reference  I  am  indebted  to  Professor  F.  De  Haan,  Bryn 
Mawr,  Pa. 


42  THE  ERUGTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM. 

Aime  le  roi  par  fine  amor,  Fine  amors  t'aprandra  a  faire 

S'anbeliras  de  jor  an  jor  ;  Comant  tu  li  porras  miez  plaire  ; 

Et  que  plus  sera  1' amors  fine  Fines  amors  vienent  de  lui 

Plus  iert  la  biautez  anterine.  Et  fins  joies  com  de  celui 

Fille,  aime  le  roi  finemant,  Qui  onques  d'amer  ne  se  faint, 

Nule  rien  plus  ne  te  deraant.  Ne  ne  demande  fors  qu'an  I'aint. 

The  reader  of  the  Eructav'd  is  frequently  reminded,  as  one  would 
expect,  of  Chretien  of  Troyes  as  well  as  of  devout  authors  by  the  set 
phrases  that  serve  to  round  out  the  line.  Many  of  these  they  have 
in  common,  or  at  least  very  similar  in  form.  Most  of  them  are 
corifirmatory  in  meaning,  and  stand  so  as  to  make  the  rime.^ 

In  11.  461,  462  the  poet  turns  a  devout  phrase  with  a  word  that 
Chretien  has  employed  of  wholly  worldly  enjoyment.  This  is  the 
term  melite  ^  which  the  Eructav'd  uses  in  this  couplet  of  the 
deliverance  from  spiritual  evil  effected  by  the  Lord's  resurrection  : 

Que  vos  deliverroiz  d'Egipte,^ 
Si  les  ammanroiz  en  melite. 

The  conviction  that  our  poet  was  familiar  with  Chretien  of  Troyes 
deepens  when  such  a  parallel  as  the  following  is  noted  : 

Erudavit,  11.  568-569,  573-574.  Cliges,  11.  6730-6733. 

* '  Issiez  fors,  sire,  si  regniez.  ' '  Biaus  sire,  or  vos  an  revenez  ! 

Nos  qui  vostre  message  somes  .  .  .       Que  tuit  vostre  baron  vos  mandent. 

*  Here  are  those  that  catch  the  eye  in  our  poem,  mentioned  in  the  order  of  their 
occurrence  :  Si  com  raconte  li  escriz  ;  De  ce  n'ot  il  nule  dotance  ;  ce  sachiez  bien  ;  qui 
onques  ne  manti  ;  ce  li  fu  vis  ;  tot  sanz  faille  ;  sanz  dotance  ;  por  voir  ;  S'est  bien 
raison  que  le  vos  die  ;  n'an  dotez  mie  ;  merci  Deu  ;  Si  vos  dirai  la  raison  porquoi ; 
Nos  trovons,  et  est  veritez  ;  Si  com  nos  le  trovons  an  livre  ;  suz  tote  rien  ;  Cont^  vos 
ai,  si  com  je  dui  ;  Antandez  moi,  si  aprenez  ;  Or  escote  si  com  je  di  ;  De  ce  est  il 
seiire  chose  ;  por  verity. 

For  similar  set  phrases  in  Philippe  and  Guillaume,  see  Mann's  article  above  cited, 
Franzosische  Studien,  vi,  293,  294. 

^  Upon  this  obscure  word,  see  Forster's  Eree  und  Enide,  note  to  2358,  and  Romania, 
XX,  149. 

'A  figure  for  the  bondage  of  sin,  used  by  Augustine  {Sermo  24,  parag.  3)  and 
Gregory,  (Migne,  lxxix,  187,  etc. ), — probably  a  commonplace  in  our  poet's  time. 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FRENCH  POEM.  43 

Vos  creature  vos  atandent ;  Mout  vos  desirrent  et  demandent 

Mout  vos  soaident  et  demandent."       Qu'anpereor  vos  vuelent  feire." 

In  spite  of  the  much  smaller  scale  of  his  work,  and  the  difference  in 
subject  and  vocabulary,  our  poet  shows  a  strong  resemblance  in  style 
and  rhetoric  to  Chretien.  In  the  simpler  rhetorical  devices  they  have 
much  in  common.  For  instance,  in  the  use  of  enumerations,  of 
alliteration,  of  synonyms,  one  siees  attempted  in  the  Eructavit  what 
Chretien's  works  employ  in  such  abundance.^ 

In  conclusion  I  return  to  the  Bible  as,  nevertheless,  the  poet's 
chief  source  -of  material.  Those  texts  which  the  poet  seems  to  have 
taken  in  the  form  employed  by  the  Fathers  of  the  Church,  especially 
by  Augustine  and  Gregory  the  Great,  have  been  already  pointed  out. 
But  it  may  be  said  that  the  whole  poem  is  biblical  in  tone,  and  even 
in  thought  and  words.  Numerous  instances  of  quotation  or  allusion 
can  be  pointed  out,  some  of  them  referring  repeatedly  to  the  same 
text.  • 

Those  directly  referred  to  their  authors  by  the  poet  are  few,  as  will 
be  shown.  But  there  are  more  than  a  hundred  instances  in  which 
biblical  thought  is  used.  Sometimes  the  very  words  are  used  in  an 
unmistakable  way.  Note  the  following :  Fons  hortorum,  puteus 
aquarum  viventum.  Cant,  iv,  15,  seems  to  be  reproduced  in  1.  2019  : 
Sachiez  que  c'est  fontainne  et  puiz  ;  and  Ps.  xxxiii,  11,  Inquirentes 
autem  Dominum  non  minuentur  omni  bono,  may  be  recognized  in  11. 
2033,  2034  : 

Qui  Deu  aime  et  de  lui  anquiert, 
Seiirs  soit  il  que  miez  I'an  iert. 

Sometimes,  altho  the  decisive  words  are  repeated,  the  thought  is 
widely  divergeut,  or  has  become  highly  figurative. 

Certain  texts,  one  should  perhaps  say  certain  themes,  are  favorites 
with  the  poet.  Thus  his  expressions  upon  heavenly  joy  as  superior 
to  that  of  earth  or  surpassing  thought  (11.  220-224,  1565-1570, 
2065-2070)  appear  to  be  framed  with  the  help  of  I  Cor.  ii,  9  and 
Is.  LXiv,  4.     He  warns  against  pride  and  the  abuse  of  power  (11. 

'  See  E.  Grosse's  treatise,  Der  Stil  Chrestien^s,  Framosisehe  Studien,  I,  218  et  seq. 


44  THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM. 

1287  ff.,  656-658,  1722  if.)  in  terms  that  suggest  Eccli.  x,  11  and 
Sap.  VI,  35  as  the  source. 

The  Gospels  are  drawn  upon  about  forty  times,  that  of  Luke  most 
frequently.  The  annunciation  and  the  virgin  birth  are  dwelt  on  and 
returned  to  with  predilection.  Of  the  Epistles,  that  to  the  Hebrews 
appears  to  serve  the  poet  ofteuest ;  next  is  the  First  Epistle  to 
Peter  ;  while  that  to  the  Romans  and  that  of  James  are  used  with 
equal  frequency,  seven  times  each.  The  Apocalypse  about  as  often 
supplies  the  thought. 

The  Psalms,  without  counting  the  one  that  serves,  verse  by  verse, 
as  the  basis  of  the  poem,  are  quoted  oftener  than  any  other  Old 
Testament  book.  This  is  not  surprising  in  a  poet  who  is  at  the  same 
time  a  Benedictine.  The  book  of  Proverbs  may  be  put  second  ;  then 
Genesis ;  next,  with  about  equal  frequency,  Solomon's  Song  and  the 
apocryphal  books,  Ecclesiasticus  and  Sapiejitia.  The  apocryphal 
chapter  xiv  of  Daniel,  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  plainly  influences  the 
poet  where  the  Evangelist  Mark  and  Daniel  the  prophet  appear, 
typifying  the  resurrection,  in  11.  969—972  : 

Quant  il  virent  Saint  Daniel  Antre  aus  fu  tote  une  semaine, 

Si  furent  simple  comme  aignel  :  Qu'onques  n'i  ot  ne  mal  ne  paine. 

The  poet  shows  the  Bible  an  honor  not  given  to  the  Fathers  of 
the  Church,  nor  to  the  commentators  from  whom  I  have  shown  that 
he  draws.  All  these  he  leaves  unmentioned.  But  four  of  the 
biblical  writers,  besides  David  who  is  always  before  us,  are  named 
when  quoted  :  Moses,  Solomon,  Jeremiah,  Paul.  In  11.  333-336, 
Moses  commends  sincerity  and  well-doing.  The  reference  is 
probably  to  Dent,  xxxi,  6-8.     The  lines  in  question  are  : 

Moyses  nos  dist  et  ansaingne  A  bien  faire  soient  tuit  preu, 

Que  nus  el  siegle  ne  se  faingne:  Qu'an  i  puet  bien  perdre'son  leu. 

In  treating  the  duty  of  an  earthly  ruler,  11.  1293-1308,  he  quotes 
Solomon's  counsel,  probably  referring  to  Sap.  vi ;  2-6,  10,  22,  23. 
He  makes  David  (see  p.  27)  quote  Jeremiah's  comfort  to  Israel,  as 
an  erring  wife.  The  reference  is  to  Jer.  in,  1  ;  the  lines  are  1578— 
1612,  of  which  the  first  four  are  as  follows  : 


THE  ERUCTAVIT,   AN  OLD  FKENCH  POEM.  46 

Deus  te  mande  par  Jeremie  De  si  cruel  ne  de  si  fiere, — 

Qu'il  n'est  mie  de  tel  maniere, —        Comme  ces  janz  del  siegle  sont.^ 

The  Apostle  Paul  is  twice  quoted  by  name:  at  11.  517-518  and 
2065—2066.  The  scripture  alluded  to  is  probably,  in  one  case,  Rom. 
VIII,  1-12  ;  in  the  other,  I  Cor.  ii,  9.  The  first  couplets  of  the  two 
passages  are  respectively  as  follows  : 

Si  croie  bien  toz  jorz  les  los,  De  cele  joie  et  de  ce  los 

Que  dist  li  apostres  Saiuz  Pes  .  .  .       Nos  dist  li  apostres  Sainz  Pes  .  .  . 


In  this  study  I  have  aimed  to  restore  the  poet's  environment, 
showing  especially  the  relation  of  his  monastery  at  Sens  to  the  counts 
of  Champagne.  I  have  presented  the  plan  and  outline  of  the  poem 
with  such  fulness  that  it  may  serve  as  my  interpretation  also  of  the 
production.  I  have  endeavored  besides  to  show  the  following  as 
probable : 

1.  That  the  poem  was  presented  to  the  Countess  of  Champagne 
at  Sens  in  the  Advent  season  of  1185. 

2.  That  the  poet  drew  from  many  sources,  most  of  his  material 
coming  from  Gregory  the  Great  or  thru  him  from  Augustine ;  that 
devout  writings  near  his  own  time,  and  even  contemporary  secular 
literature  were  familiar  to  him;  that  his  chief  indebtedness,  however, 
was  to  the  Bible. 


^  Guillaume's  Bestiaire  divin  uses  a  similar  expression  in  contrasting  the  devout  and 
the  worldly  in  their  conjugal  behavior.  The  following  lines  show  a  striking  resem- 
blance : 

Ne  sont  mie  de  tele  nature  Plusors  genz  qui  el  siecle  sont .  .  . 

Thev  occur  iu  his  passage  upon  the  turtle  dove.     See  Mann's  article  cited  above, 
Franzosische  Studien,  vi,  281. 


VITA. 


I  was  boru  at  Lima,  Ohio,  in  1851,  son  of  John  and  Mary 
(Kendall)  McKibben ;  graduated  in  1870  from  the  Lima  High 
School ;  taught  in  the  public  schools  of  Ohio  at  various  times 
during  two  years. 

All  my  undergraduate  work,  except  that  of  the  junior  year 
(which  was  had  in  the  University  of  Rochester,  N.  Y.),  was  done 
in  Denisou  University,  Granville,  Ohio,  where  I  received  the  degree 
of  A.  B.  in  1875,  and  in  whose  Preparatory  Department  I  served 
from  April,  1876,  to  June,  1879,  as  teacher  of  Greek  and  Latin. 

Graduate  studies  were  then  pursued  during  three  years:  in  1879- 
1881  at  the  Baptist  Union  Theological  Seminary,  Morgan  Park, 
Illinois,  where  I  had  the  privilege  of  Dr.  William  Rainey  Harper's 
instruction  in  Hebrew,  and  experienced  the  kindness  and  generous 
interest  that  marked  him  to  the  end  of  his  life;  in  Europe,  1881- 
1882,  chiefly  at  the  University  of  Leipzig. 

In  September,  1882,  I  began  serving  as  professor  of  modern 
languages  at  Denisou  University,  and  have  been  occupied  since  1892 
with  the  Romance  languages  only.  The  year  1891-1892  was  spent 
at  Romance  studies  in  Europe,  mostly  at  Paris  where  I  had  the 
privilege  of  hearing  MM.  L6on  Gautier  and  Paul  Meyer  of  the  Ecole 
des  Charles.  In  several  summer  quarters  of  recent  years  I  have 
attended  courses  in  the  Romance  Department  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  enjoying  the  instruction,  among  others,  of  Professors  Karl 
Pietsch  and  T.  A.  Jenkins.  Their  seminars,  especially  the  latter's 
in  1905,  I  have  attended  with  marked  advantage. 


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